


Alterfell

by BlueBerrySkull (orphan_account)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alterfell, Alternate Universe - Underfell, DAHMJOR elements, Gen, Kinda, old coat, questionable quality, since i'm always writing this when i'm sick, that Gametop, this was actually born from a joke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:22:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6414319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/BlueBerrySkull
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a stormy night, a little child receives an ominous present.<br/>- not gonna be continued unless anyone else wants to pick this up then feel free to hit me up</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Null

How long has it been?

Just being there, staring up the crack in the cavern's ceiling, a constant gray ray of light illuminating his small frame. He had stopped hoping for a change long ago. Maybe this time, it really was the end. Maybe this was really the last time. Regretting his wish wouldn't undo it and pleading for something to happen simply fell on deaf ears. He was so tired, and quite frankly - he just didn't care anymore. Sitting there, nearly as motionless as his surroundings, he merely faced upwards and let the light, as well as his own thoughts, blind him. Yes, _motionless_. All seemed as if stuck in time, the whole Underground and its inhabitants were held captive in monotone veil, muting everything. It was so... quiet. One could easily be tricked into thinking it might even be peaceful in a way. Whatever kind of force was out there had fulfilled his wish almost _too_ well.

It had been weeks ago - or maybe even months? That one was hard to tell, in a situation like his, you quickly lose your sense for such things. One of those _really bad_ runs had just ended, leaving him once more gasping for air and quivering from the shock all the way back at the start. With tears streaming down his tiny face, he curled up on himself in his little spot of grass. No matter how many times it had already been, he could never get used to the feeling of dying. An ever repeating scenario, a human child fell down - always the same child, but with different names each time. They would eventually approach him on his small bright spot on the ground, he would greet them, sometimes in other ways, but they would only wear that unfazed expression, as if emotions were a simple accessory they didn't feel like wearing that day. Once he was passed, the Underground would turn for the worse, well, worse than it already was. On some runs he would try to stop them... 'futile little attempts' was what they had called it once. Sometimes in the middle of the run, when he decided to follow them, sometimes at the end and other times... even right at the start.

When this so called "run" ended, everything would reset itself so to say. The whole world starts over and turns gray, stopping the flow of time. At the first few runs it had left him in shock and panic, believing he was finally going insane, but after a while things would go back to how they were supposed to be. He would sit in his usual spot, the human child already approaching him and from that point on the whole fiasco starts again.

The last one had been _impossible_ , no matter what he had tried, they would ignore him and just skip through his words, doing the same with the others, except he was faster at running away when they tried to slash him. But he couldn't run forever, they even _went back_ to the Ruins to find him, they actually wanted to kill absolutely every single soul in the Underground. With their DETERMINATION, they would eventually catch up to him and end him. That whole chase had left him completely drained, he couldn't stop sobbing when he was back within the Ruins. Pleading for someone or something to just make it _stop_. He couldn't handle any more of that torture, he would lose his sanity. So he cried for it to please, just _please_ , end... and it did.

At first he didn't really notice any change, but after some time... he realized that the world hadn't started over yet. Confused and uncertain he looked around, usually it never took that long. Nervously staring at the entrance of the Ruins, anxiety was slowly growing inside him, beginning to claw its way up his stem. When was it going to start? Why was it taking this long? Something like that had never happened before... what if- 

A strange feeling washed over him, when the thought had crossed his mind.

_What if it really stopped?_

Had somehow his wish actually been heard? He needed a moment to collect himself. He was unsure wether he should be happy or starting to panic. It's true, he had wished for everything to stop, but not in _that_ way. He had wanted for everything to end, to _actually end_ and not... whatever it was that happened. Initially he believed to have been left all by himself, but later discovered, while roaming the Underground, watching all those monsters unmoving in the strangest situations, that wasn't entirely true. All were stuck, all... except for _him_.

He hadn't even registered him within the masses, he was well hidden and moving so slow, doing the same as him - just walking through the place, letting his gaze wander over everyone and everything. As if they were passers-by in a gallery full of statues, almost like how the main hall used to be. It didn't exactly help that his attire was rather monochrome, he perfectly blended into their gray surroundings. But then he suddenly turned, giving the poor little plant almost the seizure of his lifetime. The same seemed to have happen to him, judging by his brief look of utter shock mixed with terror.

For a moment they just stayed like that, gaping at each other, until they both realized the situation they currently were in. Their shocked expressions turned into threatening grimaces and tension filled the air, ready to break any second. The plant knew his counterpart, not personally, but he had seen him in some of the past runs, when he had dared to leave the relative safety of the Ruins. The guy was dangerous, as much he knew, he wasn't exactly the strongest, but that didn't mean he couldn't put up a fight - he lived outside the walls after all. Those weren't the only reasons he wouldn't trust him, he was... strange. In many ways, in addition he couldn't remember having ever seen him or his brother in his 'past life' before. From some passing converstaions, he had also found out that no one knew where they really came from. They apparently just _showed up_ one day.

Well, it looked like he wasn't the only one having trust issues here, since his expression hardened and he suddenly started moving. Wether the move was meant to be a threat or not, the small plant didn't even wait to find out, he quickly disappeared into the ground and sprout back out a good couple of feet away from him. Repeating that action, until he was back within the Ruins, he had no intetion of any more contact with that guy. Even if it meant he was going to continue to be alone for the rest of... whatever that was.

From then on he stayed mostly in the entrance area, a few times he would go into the house of the Guardian and read books, even if he already memorized them all. He would try many different things to keep himself occupied, to keep his mind running and it worked, well for the first couple of days at least. He started getting bored, growing restless with each passing moment he spent alone in the silence. Weeks must have already passed, it was driving him insane, he started humming to himself. Humming turned into singing, which then turned into talking until it reached screaming and crying at nonexistent voices... he lost it.

Screaming until he grew tired of his own voice, he felt empty afterwards, emptier than he'd already felt at the start. The silence was deafening, but he didn't care anymore, he _couldn't_ care anymore. He stopped bothering, he stopped regretting, he stopped hoping... he just slouched on his usual spot... staring at the first rain drops of the upcoming storm, floating motionless above him...

...like everything else.


	2. Pandora's Box

For the upteenth time a thunder rumbled loudly, followed by lightning, not only causing the whole building to shake lightly, but also successfully emitting a tiny squeak from the bundle of blankets on the plain bed. Underneath the mount of various kinds of covers and quilts sat a child with a big book and flashlight now held closely to their body. They weren't actually scared of thunder and lightning, they had just been so immersed in their book, that the loud noise had startled them... 

They settled back down on their stomach and were ready to keep reading, but the old door of their room interrupted beat them to it. What a nasty sound it gave each time it moved even a single inch. They winced a bit at the loud protests of the hinges, maybe asking someone to fix it wouldn't be that bad of an idea.

"Frisk? It's time for dinner. You don't wanna pass up on spaghetti, right?"

They immediately, albeit a bit clumsily, wrestled their way out of the multiple blankets and vigorously shook their head. The older kid standing at the door just laughed, mumbling a 'thought so', before continuing down the hall, checking on their neighbor. Frisk turned the flashlight off and headed towards the door, not forgetting to put the book back on their small nightstand first.

When they returned to their room a couple of hours later they were wearing their pyjamas, previous clothes tucked under one of their arms. After pushing their noisy door open, they halted for a second. Just now, they could have sworn they heard a quiet giggle... Turning on the lights, they stood there, glancing at every angle of the room. There wouldn't be one of the other kids hiding in their room, would there? It was bed time, if they got caught still up and running around, they would get in trouble for it. Straining their ears after closing the door, they slowly walked into their room, checking each single possible hiding spot.

They soon realized they must have imagined it, probably was just some noise from opening that seriously _ancient_ door. Well, they were glad for not having to deal with one of the younger Kids, eager to break some small rules in the late evening. Ready to go to bed, they stopped in their tracks and went to their window, they almost forgot to close the curtains. The storm was still raging outside, there was barely any thunder to hear, but the wind was still pretty wild, making the harsh rain occasionally hit the glass rather forcefully. Thanks to the dark clouds it was almost pitch black outside, they nearly couldn't even make out the mountain in the distance...

Wait...

After a closer look, they were sure, that there was actually something right on their windowsill. They couldn't exactly see what it was, but they _knew_ something was there, so they slowly dared to open the window and were greeted by a wet gust of icy wind. Now that they could see it a bit better, they were able to recognize it as a black box. Frisk quickly took it with both hands and closed the window again, before their whole room would get rained in.

Holding it against the light, they inspected it.

It was indeed a sleek black box, they didn't know what material it was made of though, it had a strange feeling to it. Carefully and gently shacking it, they were able to tell, that it also contained something and it wasn't exactly light, but also not really heavy either. The child curiously turned it in different directions in their hands, searching for some kind of address, label or other indications of ownership, but found none. Maybe it was from one of the other kids, but why would they put it out on Frisk's windowsill? And in the middle of a stormy evening, too? It didn't make any sense and they had no clue who it could've been from. Thinking about it... they noticed that the mystery box didn't even seem to be wet, despite the rain outside...

"Lights out!"

They nearly dropped the box right there and took a moment to put their hand on their heart and sigh quietly. They were going to inspect the little (possible) 'present' tomorrow after breakfast, might as well ask the others about it, but for now they were going to get some sleep. They had to admit though, the curiousity was slowly eating them inside, they could barely await the next day.

*** * ***

On the following morning, Frisk went on with their usual routine, almost forgetting the black box sitting on their nightstand. They started to remember the little surprise of the previous night while talking with the others at breakfast and immediately asked everyone gathered at the table whether they knew anything about a black box in their room. No one seemed to know about it, they could be lying of course, but this time Frisk takes their word for it. Of course all that asking around piqued their interest, but the child decided to keep it a secret for now. Who knows, it could be something personal for them, or just nothing important, they were going to find out later.

Once they were finally alone in their room and would have their peace and quiet for a while (the others decided to go for a small trip, despite the neverending rain) they got a pair of scissors and started cutting the box open. The action proved to be more tedious than originally thought. After they had managed only three measly cuts the whole box suddenly shook a little and the black mass dissolved into thin air. Now, every other normal human being might have freaked out a little when confronted with something like that, this one looked stunned for a brief moment... and then just shrugged. Frisk was finally able to see what was inside the 'present' and they weren't sure what to think about it.

What now layed before them looked like something akin to a small, compact laptop. It was pitch black, like the box had been, with a red, well, it looked like an 8-bit heart on top of it. They studied it for a while, before slowly opening it, now it reminded them of an oversized Nintendo DS (with two screens, arrow keys and all). What baffled them a bit, was a tiny white note with a red smiley face drawn on it, lying on the lower screen. The child picked it up and flipped it around, revealing 'Have Fun' written on the back in a weird 8-bit font and another heart.

They didn't bother with the little note for much longer and just put it on their bed, before sitting down beside it and putting the... well 'Gametop' on their lap. Pushing the, what hopefully was the right button (considering it was the only colored button on the whole thing), they waited patiently for something to happen and smiled a little in childish glee, when the upper screen turned white and a little red spinning 8-bit heart, the same as the one on the device, appeared. It must be the loading screen they guessed and waited a bit longer. It was obvious that this 'Gametop' must've been even older than Frisk, after a bit of waiting, the question arose how that thing even ran. While they waited, they searched for any signs of a plugin or other kinds of apertures, but found nothing. A strange old melody, that sounded familiar to old tunes playing on a Gameboy, started playing and they set the device back on their lap, to watch the upper screen displaying a couple of pictures in addition to text...

The first picture was one of a grinning creature and a figure with a spear.

**Long ago, two races ruled over Earth:**

**HUMANS and MONSTERS**

The child recognized the story, it was the old story of Mt. Ebott, surrounding the legend of monsters and humans having lived together on those grounds in the past. Of course only the little children would still believe in such old legends, but Frisk thought it was kinda cute that someone had made a game about it.

Now it showed the picture of human and monster silhouettes standing up against each other...

**One day, war broke out between the two races.**

The next picture had a mob of humans above their counterparts, the monsters looked like they quivered in fear...

**After a long battle, the humans were victorious.**  
**They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.**

The screen went black and slowly displayed the words:

**Many years later . . .**

A cute little picture of Mt. Ebott appeared, with the description:

**MT. EBOTT**  
**201X**

"Heh."

The child smiled to themself, it wasn't very far from the actual date they currently lived in.  
This time the picture showed a little kid running towards a cave.

**Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.**

The little kid stood in front of a gaping hole in the ground, surrounded by vines.  
The kid seemed to have tripped on a vine and plummeted down the hole.

"Oh no..."

The kid lied on the ground, surrounded by giant overgrown stone pillars and above them seemed to be a barrier they must have fallen through.

The screen went black afterwards and that loading screen showed up again, this time they didn't have to wait as long, since now two big words showed up in the middle of the screen. 

**START** and **END**

They of course select 'START', really excited for more of that cute little game. The red heart shows up und bounces shortly, making a tiny speechbubble appear with 'Hello!' in it.

'I am your SOUL!'  
'I need a SHELL if you want to continue!'  
'Please, select a SHELL for me!'

Frisk couldn't help smiling at how tiny and enthusiastic that little heart seemed. The screen went black again and now the upper one showed a little figure, resembling a child in a gray, striped jumper, they thought it was a funny coincidence, they were wearing a striped sweater. Two options appeared at the side of the the kid.

 **Select Color** and **Name your SHELL**

When they chose the first one, a little color palette appeared on the lower screen and they went for a soft blue-ish jumper with two soft golden stripes, because that's how their current sweater looked like, which also happend to be their favorite. Then they selected the second option, now various letters and number appeared below. They thought for a while, they didn't exactly want to choose 'Frisk' as their name, so after some thinking they entered a name.

**Faux**

**IS THIS CORRECT?**

For some reason they felt... weird, when they pressed 'YES'. But they couldn't put their finger on it, it was just a feeling. Both screens turned black again and now a big red text went over both of them...

**WELCOME TO HELL**

**HAVE FUN**

...attached to the end was a red smiley face.


	3. A New SOUL

He was woken by a drop of water hitting his face. Blinking in confusion he barely registered two more drops falling on his petals. His small frame trembled a bit from the cold, it was raining on the surface...

_It was raining on the surface._

His sleepy mind needed a moment to comprehend that thought and then realization dawned on him. The world had started again.

He looked around frantically, everything was back in color again and he watched a few raindrops fall from small holes and crevices in the ceiling. He couldn't believe it, it had started again, never had he felt so many different emotions at once. Should he be happy and glad or should he be terrified and start panicing, or-  
He was confused, but... why had it taken so long?

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound coming from the far end of the room, he shakily turned when a certain thought crept into his mind.

The world had started again, which meant _it_ started again.

All that time going crazy in the silence, he had completely forgotten about them. What should he do? Any minute now, the human child would emerge from the room next to his. He wasn't ready for another one...

Almost on the verge of tears, he stared at the entrance, waiting for the figure to show up... but they didn't. What's going on? It drove him on edge, normally they would've been there by now. He briefly considered checking the entrance to the Underground, but quickly brushed that thought off, he felt much safer on his little spot of grass.

*** * ***

The upper screen of the Gametop showed their so called 'SHELL', standing on a little bed of silvery white flowers, maybe daisies. Surrounding them was what they made out as the hole the kid from the beginning sequence had fallen into. It had that typical pixelated 2D RPG-Maker look to it. The lower screen had the red heart, their 'SOUL', in the middle of it and a sidebar with a few options, such as 'STATS', 'ITEMS', 'SAVE' and so on. All of a sudden their SOUL jumped again, a text appearing beneath it, explaining the controls to the child.

When accidentally pressing a button for the upper screen, another text showed up beneath their SOUL.

*** A soft bed of little white flowers.**  
*** They must have broken your fall.**

_Not sure if that would've actually worked..._

They started walking around the little area with their SHELL and noticed an unused bandaid and a cute little stick, deciding to pick them up. That's when their SOUL started explaining the 'ITEMS' to them, followed by the rest of the options on the sidebar. They equipped both and kept inspecting every little corner of the area, there was practically nothing more to explore, but you never know.

After a good amount of time of doing nothing productive, Frisk finally made their SHELL walk along a small hallway and stopped in front of a big black entrance. Since there obviously was no other way, they went through it and ended up in a dark room with only one green spot illuminated by light in the middle. There was a little silvery white flower, like the ones before, but this one was a whole bit bigger and also had a little face. When they made their SHELL walk up to it, the lower screen changed, showing a red monochrome close up of the flower, with Frisk's 'STATS' below and some extra options, saying 'FIGHT', 'ACT', their 'ITEMS' and 'MERCY'.

Thanks to the close up, they now could see that the flower had torn and tattered petals and looked completely worn. _Poor thing..._  
Underneath it was a long bar with their little SOUL bouncing and saying:

*** The Flower is shaking a little.**

Afterwards a speechbubble appeared beside the poor little plant displaying:

'H-Howdy...'  
'I'm Flowey,  
Flowey the Flower...'

From what they could make out of the animation, the flower seemed to sigh.

'...and in this world,  
it's **k i l l o r b e k i l l e d .** '

Frisk frowned.

"That sounds stupid..."

The flowers beaten expression seemed to change for a second, before they gave what resembled a pained smile.

'Well,  
when you think about it,  
that _does_ sound pretty stupid.'

The child looked a bit stunned and smiled a little. _Huh. That's almost the same thing I just said..._

'U-um, you're a human, right?'  
'Look, this is the Underground.'  
'Down here live monsters...'  
'...and most of them aren't exactly fond of humans.'

Flowey seemed to look away for a while, probably thinking about something and then suddenly turned back to the child, with a tiny nervous smile on his little face.

'Uh, actually, what's your name?'

Frisk was confronted with two options and chose to tell their name.

'Faux, huh?'  
'That's an unusual name.'

"Pff- 'Flowey' isn't exactly a common name either."

The flower had a blank look for a moment and then just gave a big wide smile. _...weird._

'These are the Ruins.'  
'They're full of monsters and tricky puzzles.'  
'If you want to leave this place,  
you'd have to get through the Guardian of the Ruins first...'  
'B-but it won't be easy, so'  
'If you want, I could help you...?'

Again, two options showed up and they chose to accept his offer. By doing so the plant seemed to completely brighten up and Frisk couldn't help smiling, they liked the little flower. Why wouldn't they want to accept his help? He seemed fairly nice after all.

'Really??'  
'Neato! You won't regret this!'  
'I'll meet you in the next room, just ahead!'

And with that, Flowey dissapeared into the ground.  
Frisk was really excited for the rest of that cute little game, they would have to find the person who gave them the box the previous evening and thank them, so far it looked great.

Little did they know, two shadows were watching every single step they made...

...one was a bit surprised, while the other just smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> making progress  
> slow n' easy


	4. A New SOUL  II

What was he doing? He knew how humans were, well most humans at least, they would betray you the second you turned your back to them... but somehow, he couldn't help it. There just was something about this one that made him feel... safe. Or maybe he really had lost his mind after being stuck in time for so long. However, he waited in anticipation for the kid to enter the room.

*** * ***

The next area was a big room with two stairs leading to another entrance ahead of them. Purple overgrown brick walls surrounded them, together with a lot of red leaves scattered everywhere on the floor. Flowey waited amidst a big, but flat, pile of said leaves. Behind him was a little golden, blinking star, Frisk inspected it and found out, it was that 'SAVING STAR' their SOUL had told them about a moment ago.

After saving they turned to flowey, causing the monochrome close up to show up on their lower screen again. He smiled and the speechbubble appeared again.

'Up there is the first puzzle!'  
'You don't have to worry though,  
it was deactivated long ago.'  
'The same goes for most of the other ones...'  
'I can help you with the rest,  
if you can't find a solution...'  
'...or if I think it'd be too dangerous for you to try.'

The child pouted a little at the thought of not being able to solve some puzzles, but oh well, they still enjoyed the rest of the game so far. They waited for the flower to continue, but realized that must've been it for now, so they sent their SHELL up the stairs and at the same time the plant disappeared into the ground again.

They were now in a small room with a door and a few pressure plates on the floor.

'Yeah. It's deactivated.'  
'Just pull the lever over there.'

The child made their SHELL go to the little yellow thing next to the door, since they didn't see anything else in the room on their screen that could possibly be a lever. With a nice little 'click' the door beside them swung open and they went through.

The following area surprised them a little. They were greeted by a wide hallway with a couple of little streams and bridges over them. But what came in as a great contrast to the previous rooms, was that the whole hallway was filled with neatly placed pots with many different plants in them, also varying in size. They were all in a fresh green and a lot of them were blooming too, the child was even sure they could make out a couple of fruits hanging from small trees, too. While walking along they also noticed small white statues, since the game was in a rather 'pixely' style they couldn't really see what exactly they were, but it was still a nice little touch to the scenery. Frisk could only imagine what it must've been like to walk around in a pretty place like that, they didn't even dare to think how it would _smell_ , considering all the flowers.

'H-hey Faux!'  
'Before we continue,  
I wanted to tell you, that...'  
'Eventually you will encounter a monster.'  
'And your stick is really cute and all,  
but I doubt it will be of any real use aginst them...'  
'Well, there's a lot of stuff lying around here.'  
'I could find you something better suited as a weapon.'

Frisk didn't like the sound of that, Flowey was nice, but they didn't want to hurt anyone. They knew that most games had hurting people and slaying monsters set as priority, but they weren't the biggest fan of violence. That was also the reason they usually stuck to non-violent games, they really didn't want to end up fighting in this cute little game.

'What do you say?'

The Flower gave a smile, it was hard to tell, since everything was pixelated, but they somehow got the feeling it was a bit forced. They inwardly sighed in relief as another set of options showed up. They declined.

Flowey looked completely baffled.

'W-what??'  
'Are you sure?'  
'I mean,  
you're going to need it!'  
'You have to be able to defend yourself, after all!'

Frisk huffed.

"I think, when it comes to self defense, my neat little stick is more than enough."  
"And I don't wanna hurt anybody anyway..."

They waited for what the flower was going to say, but he stayed quiet after that, wearing an unreadable expression. Wondering if the game froze, they were ready to do something, when suddenly the plant started laughing and mumbled a little 'oh man', before looking at them again. He was now smiling genuinely and telling Frisk, that he liked them. He also seemed more than okay with their pacifistic set of mind, albeit a bit worried, but he promised, that if they ever were in danger around him, he would try and help them as best as he could. The child was smiling at such nice words.

Walking down the hallways, Flowey kept occasionally popping up beside their SHELL and maybe just tell them little things about the Ruins. How most of the puzzles originally used to be traps to capture or hinder humans on progressing, but the Guardian of the Ruins had decided to deactivate them and how, thanks to their hard work, those catacombs became some sort of 'safe haven' or 'oasis'. It was kinda funny, how the plant sheepishly admitted not to really know what an actual oasis looked like, to which Frisk chuckled and also found it a little sad.

It would've been nice if they could have actually talked with Flowey, they would've loved to tell him all kinds of different things about the world. They couldn't help but like the little flower. Even if it was just a short amount of time they had spent with him, he really had grown on them.  
...  
That was unintentional.

After rounding a corner, a strange sound came from the Gametop and a small exclamation mark popped up beside their SHELL. The next moment a creature appeared in front of them and the lower screen switched to a close up again. Their SOUL bounced and said:

*** Froggit attacks you!**  
*** What will you do?**


	5. Welcome to the Ruins

How could he have forgotten about that Froggit? Sure, they usually were one of the few remaining nicer kind of monsters, but not to strangers. They also tended to come to the conclusion, that most of the other creatures they didn't know were food... He had already had his fair share of nearly being eaten alive and it didn't help that a lot of them weren't exactly the brightest either. The monster was a few inches taller than the kid and could easily swallow them whole, with their big mouth it would be a piece of cake.

The Froggit lunged at the human and they simply dodged with their usual unearthly skills, it was hard to describe how they did it. It was as if some unseen force just grabbed them and pulled them out of the way. Since this one seemed a bit nicer than the previous ones, he might as well ask them about it later, in addition to how they always seemed to be able to talk without moving their lips or changing expression.

He was about to jump in and help them deal with the monster, when they suddenly just complimented their counterpart and added 'Well, you _do_ look like a frog, but a bit cuter!'. Had he just witnessed that scene right? They didn't just seriously _talk_ to their attacker, much less _call them cute_ , did they? Apparently his mind wasn't playing crazy tricks on him, as the Froggit looked shocked but also blushed a little. He could've bet his remaining good petals, that the monster didn't actually understand what the kid had just said, but every idiot would've gotten the gist of it by that genuinely kind tone of voice.

The creature eventually hopped away after giving the kid a few pieces of gold for their kindness, leaving an unfazed child and a confused flower alone again. He needed a second to think about what had just happened. Yeah, they had declined his offer earlier, but he didn't actually believe they were truly against violence. He could tell from the very start, that this human was somehow different from the ones before, well beside the fact that their voice was a bit higher pitched, than the previous runs. But he had expected them to at least strike back when confronted with a monster, not being nice to them... A little hopeful thought dared to cross his mind:

_What if this time..._  
_What if it's going to be different...?_

He was pulled out of his thoughts, when the kid started walking down the corridor again. They encountered a couple more monsters and acted the same kind of way with every single one of them, never raising a hand, well _stick_ , against them. Heck, they even took their time to run after a Whimsun and properly consoling them, it must've been years since the last time he had seen a small smile on the monster. With all the money they had gotten from their kindness, they had bought a few sweets from the Spider Bake Sale and even shared them with the little plant. It was almost too good to be true...

The child was about to enter another room, when suddenly they bumped into a big shadow, much bigger than any of the monsters they had met to that point.

*** * ***

It seemed their SHELL had run into something, blocking off their way. A very tall monster stepped forward and their lower screen switched to a close up again. From what it looked like, it was a mix of some kind of wolf and goat with white furr, long floppy ears and big horns, well _horn_ , the left one was broken, leaving only a stump. They had big black eyes with red, piercing pupils, underlined with a yellow line. They wore what seemed like a long, soft cream colored dress with red markings on the bottom and some strange symbols on the chest, in addition to wide white sleeves and something akin to a black cloak or cape. From the lower screen they could see, that they had a kind of female form and also looked very surprised.

'Oh my...'  
'This is unexpected!'  
'I had not thought of finding a human,  
when I was told about a strange monster roaming the Ruins.'  
'It has been fairly long,  
since the last time a human has fallen into the Underground...'  
'And a child no less!'

_This must be the Guardian of the Ruins, Flowey had told me about._

Frisk thought that the monster seemed nice, but had some kind of intimidating, superior feeling to them. Their counterpart gave a big endearing smile.

'Why hello there, young one!'  
'Let me introduce myself,  
I am Toriel, Guardian of the Ruins and its inhabitants.'  
'I can not even think about,  
how such a poor little soul as yourself,  
could have fallen into the Underground!'  
'Were you not informed about this place, my child?'

The child had a strange, undescribable feeling in their chest, as Toriel spoke. Somehow, even though they were basically just staring at pixels and reading small texts, they got a very authoritative, yet warm undertone from Toriel.

'Unfortunately,  
you won't be able to leave...'  
'You see dear,  
anything can enter through the Barrier,  
the human's have created,  
but nothing can leave...'

_Well it would beat the purpose, if they could just leave like that._

'But worry not'  
'From what I have heard,  
someone as yourself is more than welcome here.'  
'You can stay at my home  
and I shall take good care of you, my child.'  
'Only if you want to, of course.'  
'That reminds me...'  
'I still have a pie in the oven!'  
'Would you like to join me for a cup of tea, dearest?'

Toriel patiently held one of her big paws out to their SHELL, wearing that sweet and warm smile. Frisk looked at Flowey, but couldn't make out any expression on his sprite, so they just accepted her offer, even if they didn't really know yet what to think of her. The monster's whole appearance seemed to soften even more at that and they started walking, after saying 'Alright then, Come along!'.

*** * ***

It was... weird, to say the least. Normally at this point they would be fighting each other, the Guardian having been informed about a strange creature, basically on a little killing spree and would try to subdue the kid, in order to protect her people. But here they were, sitting at a wooden table in a warm and cozy living room, eating butterscotch cinnamon pie, drinking tea and the Guardian chatting away about life in the Ruins. Yes, Flowey was also at the table and had gotten a small slice of pie. After the Guardian had taken the human to her home, he had just silently followed them, until eventually she had noticed him. It had taken a lot from the little plant to speak to her, even if she simply had asked him, who he was.

The flower lived in the Ruins, but usually avoided all of the other monsters, especially her. To his surprise, she concluded, that he was a friend of the kid and offered him to join them. After he didn't respond for a long while, she just took it as a yes and carefully had placed him into a small pot with soil, before setting him on the table.

_What am I doing..._

It was clear that the big monster had already taken a liking to the small child, even though they rarely said anything. After some time, they suddenly called her 'Mom', to which she looked something between shocked and mildly surprised, while Flowey almost choked on his little bite of the sweet pastry. Alright, _that_ definitely had never happened before. She softly patted the human's head, before taking their plates and going to the kitchen, telling them that she would show them their room after she was finished.

The child stood and started walking around the room, looking at pretty much everything, while giving occasional small comments about the things they looked at. Afterwards they went back to the table, taking Flowey, to his surprise and putting him on a small table at the far corner, near the big bookshelf. Since they weren't very tall in comparison to the owner of the house, they picked a few of the lowest books and started quickly reading them. The plant could make out they were books about the history, geography and topography of the Underground. He could hear the Guardian humming a familiar tune in the kitchen. He sighed.

Before long, the human suddenly started saying strange things out of nowhere, startling the small plant.


	6. Let's Find Out

The first few books explained the basics of the Underground, concerning the areas. Apparently it was a very vast place and the Ruins, which they currently were in, as well as the Capital were the most 'common' places. But the other areas drastically changed from those two, for example that 'Snowdin', 'Waterfall' and 'Hotland'... you can get the idea from the names already. The child enjoyed the little comments from the authors of the various books (especially about the clever naming).

What peaked their interest where the history books, they couldn't read a lot of it though, since the pages seemed to be restricted by the game. From what they had found out so far, it basically told the story about the war between monsters and humans and the legend of monsters being sealed under the mountain, which they already knew. It also told a bit about the royal Family. Apparently long ago, after the war, a human child had fallen into the Underground and was found by the young Prince. He had brought them to his parents, the King and Queen Dreemurr and they took them in, treating the child like their own. 

One day, the human child had fallen ill, it seemed that monster's bodies were mostly made of magic and only had a small physical amount, so they never had to bother with common medicine and couldn't help the poor child. There wasn't much of the page left, they could only make out, that with the human's death some kind of tragedy happened, resulting in the death of the Prince as well. The whole thing left two devastated parents and a mourning Underworld. In addition the Queen seemed to have left, after her husband lost himself in his grief, locking herself away and from that Point on, everything went for the worse. Leaving only the Ruins as a memory of how the Underground used to be.

They had been so immersed in reading the books, that they nearly jumped out of their skin, when all of a sudden a whole group of kids stormed into their room, all yelling at once.

"Frisk, we're back!"  
"It was amazing-"  
"You should've been there-"  
"It was raining, like, all the time-"  
"We saw a fox-"  
"Hey! Wait, what's that? Are you playing a game?"  
"Really?? I wanna see-"

They were all interrupted by an older kid pulling a few of them back by their clothes while telling them to calm down, they knew that Frisk wasn't a big fan of unnecessary commotion. The kid also warned them to better leave the poor child alone and go change before a supervisor saw them in their muddy clothes. Frisk put a hand on their heart and sighed once the little group was gone, leaving them alone with the other kid.

"I see you're all back and also had lots of fun outside."

"Haha, you know them, especially the smaller ones get overly excited about pretty much everything. We were like that too, when we were their age, remember?"

"Pff- I'm pretty sure I didn't just burst into someone's room over every little thing."

"That's what _you_ think. Looks like you've been enjoying yourself while we were gone. Hey, is that the thing from this 'black box' you had mentioned at breakfast?"

"Oh, yeah. It, uh, was in the box. It's a game."

"Really? Lemme see! ...huh, looks pretty retro. Is it fun?"

"Yes, actually. I really like it..."

"Cool. I better go change too, before _I_ get in trouble. Oh, and I'm supposed to tell you, lunch is earlier than usual. Most of the others are starving from the trip. See ya later!"

"Got it."

They give each other a short salute, before the kid closed the door and left Frisk to their own devices. When they turned to look at the screen again, Flowey was giving them the craziest look they had ever seen on him, together with a speechbubble saying '...what?'. _Oh shoot._ They hadn't paused, did they miss anything important?

'Faux, are you okay?'

"Oh man, I missed a part, didn't I."

' "missed a part"?? What are you talking about?'

Frisk froze.  
They hadn't just... They were seeing things right here... right?

'Faux? Hello! What's wrong with you all of a sudden?'

They needed to test this... even if it possibly was the stupidest thing ever. They cleared their throat, after noticing it had gone dry and then they said in a nervous, quiet voice:

"U-um. Can you hear me...?"

'What kind of question is that? Of course I can hear you, silly!'

"Oh god... you've got to be kidding me..."

' _Excuse me?_ '

Flowey had a weird expression, but it quickly turned into a concerned, almost panicked look.

'Oh no... don't tell me you're sick, Faux!'  
'How are you feeling right now?'

"Uh, no. I'm okay, at least I think I am."

'Really? You don't have to lie to me you know.'

"No, really, _I'm fine_. Just- give me a moment."

Frisk put their head in their hands and slowly rubbed at their face, while giving a long sigh. How were they going to say this?

"Okay. Look, uh, Flowey. This might be a bit... hard to believe, if you don't already know it, that is... But, uh, well, you're _in a game_."

Okay, so earlier when they thought that the plant was giving them the craziest look ever, they were wrong, _now_ he was looking at them, like they had just truly lost their mind.

"Yeah, okay I know, it sounds crazy, but... it's true. I'm actually sitting on my bed right now, with this little Gametop thing on my lap, I had gotten yesterday evening."

The flower was just staring at them with a strange look and they couldn't tell whether he was sure they were insane, or if he was actually thinking about the whole thing. He looked away, conflicted, it was clear he was thinking it through.

"Well, we do have a mountain here too and also the legends about monsters, but-"

Before they could finish, he suddenly snapped back to them and said:

'We're down there! Beneath the mountain!'  
'I mean, we _have to_ be. You can't tell me, that all of these memories I have... are _fake_.'

"I- I didn't mean-"

'But... maybe you're right...'  
'I... before you came... there were other... "runs".'  
'Every time... a human would fall down here...'  
'They would look almost exactly like you.'  
'Except, their clothes always had a different color and they had different names too.'  
'They... they...'

Flowey let out a shaky sigh.

'Everytime they had reached... a certain point,  
time would rewind itself'  
'...and stop for a while, before the "next" human fell down...'  
'And it started all over again...'  
'But nobody noticed anything, well _almost_ nobody...'  
'I realized, that the others weren't aware of what was going on...'  
'It was weird... and frustrating.'  
'But... if what you say is true...'  
'...then it would explain _a lot_.'

Flowey gave a small shaky laugh and kind of curled up on himslef. The child felt immensely bad for the plant, what had they done? They wanted to say something to the poor flower, but didn't know what. So they stayed silent and waited.  
In the next few seconds, he slowly straightened himself again and suddenly said:

'What if... what if _both_ is true...?'

"...what do you mean?"

'What if, this _is_ a game, but at the same time we really live in the Underground...'

Realization dawned on Frisk, when they understood what Flowey meant.

"So, you're saying, the legends are true and you guys actually exist... and your world is connected to this Gametop?"

Flowey smiled wide.

'I don't know what a "Gametop" is, but yes!'  
'I mean, it's not impossible, right?'  
'After all, aren't we talking right now?'

He had a point. Them talking to each other is already crazy enough, so why shouldn't his theory be possible too? Frisk had an idea and a part of them felt a little stupid for even considering it. But, they also felt that they should try it out, either they'll find nothing, or they really end up confirming Flowey's thought. They know, that if the latter is true, then there won't be going back. Well, it's not like they really had anything to lose either way now, did they?

"Flowey."

The plant perched up at his name.

"I have an idea. I will go to the mountain and confirm whether you really are down there. If it's true, I know there will be no turning back, but if I find nothing..."

Flowey grimaced a little at the last part, he looked to the side, before looking at them again and saying 'Okay.'. Frisk sighed.

"Well, I better start packing then, it's gonna be a long trip and I'll probably have to sneak out tonight.... Wait for me, okay?"

'Okay Faux, guess I'll see you in a bit.'

"...Frisk."

'Huh?'

"My name is actually Frisk."

'Oh... um, okay then... Frisk.'

He gave a little smile, before they turned the device off and closed it. They sat there for a while, staring at the 8-bit heart on the lid, many different thoughts running through their head. Strangely though, the greatest one is: _I'm gonna sneak out and basically run away tonight_. They slowly stood and put the Gametop on their nightstand again, also taking the little note from their bed an placing it on the book lying next to the device. _Alice in Wonderland. Heh. When you think about it, the thing with the kid falling down a hole, into a strange world, filled with strange creatures is kinda similar to it._

They already were feeling giddy and determined for the night, even though it was only barely noon. The child needed to carefully think about what they'd have to pack for the trip, they'd have to consider the possibility of maybe never returning again... but they couldn't just take their whole room with them. They'd also need things for a mountain trip in general, luckily they had enough stuff that should help, from all the trips they usually had with the others. They defenitely were going to pack a rope or two, they didn't want to test whether that flower bed from the beginning area really could break a fall like that. Keeping on thinking about what they'd need, Frisk made their way out of their room and towards the dining room for lunch... 

It was going to be an interesting night, they just really hoped the whole thing wouldn't turn out as some sick kind of prank... you never know.

*** * ***

They were sure they had packed everthing of the basic stuff they needed. Different kinds of clothes, considering the drastically changing areas in the Underground, their basic equippment from the mountain trips, in addition to a good blanket they usually packed when they went camping, food and water. They currently wore their favourite soft blue and gold sweater from earlier that day, together with the long black pants and shoes. Since it was autumn and _still_ raining outside, they wore a cozy gray jacket, a long red flanell scarf and a red wool hat (they also had considered taking spares with them, just in case). Now, all that was left were their important personal belongings.

They were defenitely going to pack their scrapbook, it was their greatest treasure and there was no way they were just going to leave it there. Before putting it in their bag they halted and walked over to their nightstand, taking the note on the book and stuck it into their scrapbook, memories are memories. They also opened their drawer and carefully placed the Gametop in it, no one needed to find that while they were gone. Going over to their desk, they got a little notebook, together with a small case full of pencils and other things. They also didn't forget to take their tiny instant camera and evrything belonging to it, it was a birthday gift from all of the other kids together.  
...They were going to miss them a little, if they won't return.

After having carefully checked everything, they were ready to go. Taking in their room for possibly the last time, they got their backpack and turned to slowly open their door, as not to wake any of the others.

_**CREEEAAAK** _

They cringed. _Gosh darn that door._ The next moment, their neighbor's door already opened and a head peeked out, spotting them. It was the older kid from earlier that day.

" _Frisk?_ "

They sighed. They had done that already far too many times on a single day.

" _H-Hey..._ "

" _What on earth are you doing out here... and looking like that?_ "

The kid walked up to them, but they didn't respond, what were they supposed to tell them?

" _Um, it's... complicated._ _Look, I'm going for a, uh, trip. I need to check something, it's really important._ "

" _In the middle of the night? **Alone??**_ "

" _It's really important to me, okay?_ _Please, you can't tell the others...!_ _**Please.**_ "

Their counterpart fell silent and gave them a hard look, they both were a bit stiff. After a short staring contest, the other kid sighed and looked away.

" _Well... it's true that you never do anything, uh, drastic without a good reason..._ _And, knowing you, it'd be pointless to try to stop you, so..._ "

The kid walked closer to Frisk and gave them a good hug.

" _Be careful, okay? You know we care about you._ "

" _Y-yeah... thank you._ "

They let go and grinned at Frisk.

" _Your little secret is safe with me, I won't tell the others. If someone else heard your oh so nice door, I'll just say you probably had to go to the bathroom, m'kay?_ "

" _Heh. Thanks... a lot._ "

The kid slowly made their way back to their room and mouthed a 'I didn't see you', before closing the door. Frisk chuckled a little at that and started quietly making their way to the backdoor of the kitchen. They knew from experience, when they had snuck out with some other children to watch the stars, that the door was usually unlocked, thanks to the janitor. After an agonizingly long walk, rain finally hit their head and they pulled their hood up.

...It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what have i done  
> it's well past 3 am and i've got to get up early for work  
> enjoy this, k bye


	7. Reality

After they had 'left' the world had stopped once again, going back to that unfortunately already familiar gray scale, as always everything had turned motionless, including the kid this time around ... and it was so quiet. _God_ how he hated that pure silence, it was the worst to hear absolutely _nothing_. It didn't help either, if you didn't really need to breathe. 

He waited, as the human had asked him to and couldn't help growing more anxious with every passing minute. They sure were taking their sweet time ...Okay, he knew already that it would take a good while for them to even reach the base of the mountain, that is if they didn't already live in the forest by some weird kind of coincidence, but it didn't make him feel any better...

Saying the revelation had been a shock to him was an understatement. And besides, could he actually trust Fau- Frisk. He wanted to, but what should he expect anyway? From what he knew, they could be completely different in person, after all, they did think it was just a game... Well, if they even showed up at all, that is. He tried to push the thought away... If the world were to start again the way it is now, it would mean, that they hadn't found anything... It would mean... He... All this time...

_No. It can't be true._

He _has_ memories of his past after all and there's no way those could be fake... They just _can't_ be...  
They will come, he knows it, they have to. 'It's going to be different', he tells himself, 'They're going to show up any moment now', he just needs to wait, he just has to be patient... And trust them... He really wants to trust them... but it's hard. Too many times, the previous seven humans that had fallen long before this one, back before they showed up and the whole thing with time playing crazy tricks had started, he had been betrayed by them...

He tried to fight the doubt, which just kept growing bigger and bigger inside him, almost swallowing him. He tried to believe in his hopefully newfound friend... they _were_ friends... weren't they?

'Stop. Just, stop. Thinking.'

He barely choked out those words, now on the verge of tears again. He kept repeating them, together with other short sentences, such as 'They'll come.' and 'This is real.' until eventually the last one became a quiet mantra. The plant had curled in on himself again and tried to black out any other thoughts, that tried to sneak their way into his mind, he just needed to wait...

' **MY CHILD!** '

*** * ***

Maybe they should have waited a bit longer, until the next day, or at least until the rain had stopped. Sure, they normally enjoyed rain, it was soothing and always made them feel extra cuddly and cozy when they were sitting inside, surrounded by warm blankets, plus it was fun to play in. But they were talking about a raging storm here, during autumn and also _in the middle of the night_. The cold wasn't really bothering them, they had prepared themself for that one, but they were a relatively small child and didn't really weigh much, so it was nearly impossible for them to walk even somewhat straight. In addition they barely even made half of their way, Frisk was still walking on one of the main paths through the forest, with a streetlight every couple feet, but they knew that if they wanted to reach the mountain, they'd have to take one of the side paths eventually. And those were very slim and overgrown, making it already easy enough to lose the way, also those defenitely didn't have any forms of light to offer, to which they'd have to use their small flashlight eventually.

There was no going back, after they had made it this far there was no way they were going to turn around. Sneaking out is one thing, sneaking back in is a whole other challenge, they knew they'd get caught and it'd be over for at least a couple of weeks... and besides, they had basically promised Flowey. And there was no way they'd ever break a promise they'd made, especially with a friend. So, they kept on walking through the big dark forest, hoping to have taken the right way... and to have done the right decision.

It wasn't until the storm had subdued a little, leaving only icy hard raindrops instead of the harsh wind and loud thunder, that they had finally found what seemed to be the right cave in the mountain. They were fairly high up and thanks to the dark and the pouring rain they couldn't even make out the town they had come from. The child quickly, but carefully, strode into the cave, now recognizing the many thick vines growing along the ground and, more importantly, the giant looming hole in the ground a good few feet away from them.

They started slowly walking towards it and stopping a safe range of distance in front of it. Looking down into the darkness, they tried shining with their flashlight into it, but saw nothing. Frowning they tried to catch their breath from the extertion they had went through to reach this point and exhaled slowly for a couple of seconds. Many different thoughts swirled through their head, as they decided to pick up a rock and throw it into the hole. They waited and waited and frowned even more, they couldn't leave Flowey hanging now. Frisk thought they'd have to take their chances and started circling the drop, looking for a good spot to tie their rope around. 

After finding a thick and trustworthy enough stalagmite, they bound the rope around it, double checking the knots and slowly made their way toowards the deep and dark hole, throwing the other end in while still holding onto it.

_Alice in Wonderland, huh? Well then, down the rabbit hole it is. Let's just hope there aren't any dangerous gases down there, like they show in documentaries..._

With a careful, but swift motion, they made their way down the drop, good thing they had all those mountain trips before. They slowly climbed down with their flashlight still on, but hanging off their backpack now, keeping to switch between looking down and checking the rope. Suddenly, after having climbed down for what felt like forever, their shoe had come in contact with a strange undescribable kind of surface and a weird, shocking sensation overcame them. Before the child could even stop themself, their hands automatically let go of the rope. They never had panicked that much and that quick in their entire lifetime before, when suddenly all of the air was pulled out of their lungs and their vision blackened.

*** * ***

There was a dull ache going through their entire body, which seemed to pass the more they regained their consciousness again. What had happened...? They smelled something pleasant and a little sweet too, the next thing they knew, they were lying on their side and feeling something soft tickle their face. While the gears were turning in their drowsy mind, they opened their eyes and registered a bunch of small silvery white flowers around them and with that something clicked in their head.

_No. Way._

Frisk quickly sat up, which they immediately regretted, as a headache shot through them and the world around them spun for a while. They felt nauseous for some reason and clumsily fumbled with the backpack, getting a small bottle of water and slowly drinking some of it. Afterwards they sat there and waited until they felt better. The child got up, noticed that their flashlight was still on and quickly turned it off, wanting to save some battery, since it seemed bright enough in the small cavern anyways.

They noticed a strange feeling deep in their chest and suddenly felt... heavier. Not in a bad way, it wasn't really an unpleasant feeling, it was just... there. They didn't think much about it as they also noticed a second unfamiliar feeling deep within them, it was lighter, much lighter than the other and sort of... warm and fuzzy. For some reason making them feel _alive_. The child pushed those thoughts away as they remembered what they were doing.

_What happened?_

They kept repeating that very question over and over in their head. Just a moment ago, well at least they hoped it was only a moment, since who knew how long they had been out for, they were climbing down that hole and the next thing... They couldn't remember what had happened afterwards. Did they fall down? If they did, they had to give credit to that little flowerbed they were currently standing on, for _actually braking their fall_ , who would have thought that? But who knew if that really happened, they looked up and were met with a white glowing ceiling, far above them. 

That's when they realized: the Barrier. Had the Barrier actually caused them the state they were in, as they had woken up? Wait, _the Barrier_. They just realized what their whole situation could possibly mean, they started pacing around the small flowers trying to calm themself. They shouldn't jump to conclusions yet, they weren't a grade schooler anymore, they needed to camly think this through. After letting out a breath, they hadn't even realized they were holding, they looked through the small cavern with big curious, but also slightly skeptical eyes. Okay, there _were_ those overgrown gigantic pillars for a start. They went along a small dark path, leading into a room with only one green illuminated spot in the middle, like in the game.

They didn't want to get their hopes up, just to be crushed, yet, so they kept walking through the room and stopped dead in their tracks as they entered a gigantic purple-ish area. Maybe they could hope a _liiittle_ bit.  
The child gaped at the scenery in front of them. These _obviously_ were the Ruins, just like in the game, except they were by far bigger and more mysterious, than they had imagined, plus they were really beautiful too and more than that, _real_. They felt so tiny as they slightly grazed one of the huge purple brick walls while walking through the room, in addition to the occasional pillars the whole area gave off a kind of antique feeling, reminding Frisk of old temples or strongholds.

After a good amount of time they entered a new hallway and almost melted where they stood. All those beautiful flowers, the small pretty white statues (of flowers and forest animals they noted), well they were far bigger than them, they could see now and even the fresh delicious looking fruits. And _oh_ the smell, it was almost as if they were in heaven. This had to be true, there was no way something like that was an illusion! Which also meant- They could meet Flowey! And Toriel and the other monsters!

They quickly started making their way through the Ruins, strangely however not encountering a single monster...

After rounding a particular corner, the child halted and slowly went back to it. They didn't know why, but something was throwing them off in that corner as they had passed it. They scanned the small area and recognized what it was. The SAVE STAR. There had been one in the game at that exact place, they knew it, but couldn't see it anywhere. Now that they thought about it... they hadn't seen a single SAVE STAR at all yet. Searching the whole hallway they looked at the ground and their eye catched something. Right beneath, what they assumed was the spot the little shining light had floated in the game, was a small pile of what looked like silvery, but also slightly golden tinted, faded sand, looking like glitter when reflecting the light around them. _No way..._

Was that...?

It had to be, the child was now very sure, that that pile of sand must have been the SAVE STAR, but why...

*** * ***

Flowey shot up, scared and confused at the sudden distressed scream, the time was flowing again, did they-

Before he could finish that thought, he realized why the Guardian had suddenly acted that way and he could only choke out a pathetic excuse of a scream, as he stared in horror at the figure in front of him.

There was the child, standing like nothing was wrong, while they slowly were _disintegrating into a pile of sand_.

The flower was close to a tiny panick attack, as the monster at the other end of the room yelled incoherent things at the spot a child once stood, their piercing gaze flickered towards the plant and he yelped, cowering away from their burning stare. For a moment he feared what they were going to do to him, but when he heard a strange strangled noise, he looked up to see she was about cry. 

At that Flowey's mind finally wrapped up, to what he just had witnessed and a spark of hope rose in him, as he already formed a couple of theories. It took a lot of him, but he was able to get the Guardian's attention again and try to explain to her, what possibly could've have happened. He told her to calm down and reminded her that humans couldn't simply crumble into dust like that and also the basics of their situation, saying that if he was right, they should get out of the house and search the Ruins. It was obvious she didn't really believe a single word he had said, but at the thought of everything being alright, she took his pot into her big paws and started making her way down the purple hallways.

Both looked around frantically, inspecting every little corner of the catacombs, asking monsters whether they saw someone new walking around, but couldn't find anything. Flowey had a dozen of thoughts running through his head, he _had_ to be right about this one, there was no other explanation to him as to what had happened. It was frustrating and he could tell, the tall monster holding him was having that same thought.

After hurridly passing a doorway, the Flower suddenly collided with something solid and heard a tiny squeak right in front of him.

*** * ***

Rubbing at their forehead, the child looked up to be met with a huge, white furred monster and a brightly grinning Flower, with what looked like tiny pecks of tears at the corners of his eyes. 

"Flowey!"

They jumped forward and put their hands behind his petals, immitating holding his head and grinned widely before nuzzling his little face, giggling cheerfully. That seemed to throw him off for a second, before he joined laughing, while tears streamed down his face, mumbling 'You're here.'. They were interrupted by a soft, warm voice above them.

" _Oh_ my dear little child..."

_That's right, Toriel!_

Now that they saw her up close in person, they noted quite a few things. One, she was _way_ bigger than they had imagined, they looked like a shrimp compared to her and the other thing being, she was far more intimidating than they thought. Now they could really see the big claws and long, sharp fangs she had, in addition to the black eyes with small piercing crimson pupils, or irises, it was hard to tell for them. But now she also had tears welling in her eyes, giving a shacky smile while gazing at them with a warm, almost motherly look.

"...Toriel."

She slowly knelt down, positioning the flowerpot in one hand, while wrapping her free arm around them and pulling them into a long tender hug, mumbling things such as, to never scare and worry her like that again and that they were going to have a long talk. Frisk couldn't help chuckling a little at that and agreeing with her, simultaniously hugging her back as best as they could in that moment.

...they could barely even believe what was happening, but they didn't care anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it makes me all giddy seeing that people are actually enjoying this so far  
> thank you very much!


	8. Pleasant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> open your heart, open your mind

Life in the Ruins couldn't be more pleasant, after their arrival, Toriel had taken them to their new home. They immediately fell in love with the cute house and its heartwarming atmosphere. As well as Toriel's cooking, she made the best things the child had ever tasted. When they had eaten one of her pies, it was like a pure slice of heaven inside their mouth. The big monster beamed as they noticed Frisk practically melting away at the table.

She didn't mind Flowey's presence at all and treated him just as kind as she treated the human child, even though he rarely ever talked to her. They didn't understand the behaviour of their friend, but didn't want to press the matter. Frisk and Flowey now officially lived with the Guardian of the Ruins and they shared a room together. It had baffled them why the monster had such a neat and typical room for a child. There was a box full of toys, another one full of different sized shoes and in the wooden closet at the far end of the wall were a couple of pants and striped sweaters, all too small for them. Toriel had taken the things out shortly after, deeming they wouldn't be of any real use for the child. On the desk, opposite of the bed, they had found an old dusty picture frame, with a faded family photo in it. They couldn't really make out faces anymore, but judging from the forms, it obviously had showed parents with two children, the mother in the picture clearly was Toriel.

Before they could even open their mouth to say anything, Flowey already spoke up in a calm and quiet voice.

"Those used to be her husband and kids..."

He had an unreadable expression and just stared at a drawn picture of a flower, on the wall next to them.

"You know, before you, there were other humans that had fallen down here long ago... She'd usually offer her help and take them in, just like with you, that was if they didn't harm any of the monsters here. On some she would turn a blind eye, chalking it up to confusion and self defense, but if they killed the monsters here, she'd do anything to protect her kind. It was a bit hard to watch... the others hadn't been like you, you know? Some would even be so evil to act nice at first and then stab you in the back, the second you turned... literally."

"That sounds horrible... But if there were humans before me, it'd explain all the shoes in that box earlier. And judging from what you've just told me, it's no wonder I was instantly attacked as 'Faux'."

"Well, to be honest I doubt it would've made much of a difference, either way most monsters aren't exactly fond of humans in general..."

"Oh, yeah... the whole Barrier thing..."

Flowey nodded and turned towards them now, giving a little smile.

"Hey, shouldn't you better change or something? Your clothes still look pretty damp..."

He looked away again, smile dropping slightly and turning into another unreadable expression.

"Um... thank you. For everything, actually. Thanks to you I don't have to be stuck in a nasty time loop for god knows how long anymore... and get to live here together with you..."

Looking up he smiled softly and sincere, curling his two leaves around one of the child's hands, they were holding the flower pot with and squeezed a little.

"Thank you very much, Frisk. It means a lot to me to have a friend like you."

Said child chuckled softly and shuffled a little, in an attempt to hug the flower.

"I have to thank you too."

He looked a bit confused at that.

"Thank you for being my friend too, Flowey."

Now they both laughed and stood in the room, in something that could still qualify as a hug.

*** * ***

Life in the Ruins couldn't be more pleasant, the child quickly had gotten accustomed to the place and it didn't take long for even the most distrusting monsters to take a liking to the human and actually enjoy their company. Somehow Frisk had easily managed to befriend absolutely everyone in the purple catacombs, they even had gotten a free cupcake from the spiders at the 'Spider Bake Sale' once. They loved spending time around the Ruins, sometimes they played with a couple of monsters, learning little games from them, while the child also showed them simple games from the Surface in exchange. 

Most of the time they just loved relaxing around the beautiful scenery, usually somewhere with a lot of plants, they had discovered that there were parts of the Ruins immitating small gardens or even tiny forests. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any animals, which probably explained the white statues of birds, deers, foxes and so on, they had discovered that Toriel had been the one who sculpted all of them (to which they complimented her on her talent), apparently she was one of the few monsters, that had lived on the surface. So she had started sculpting forest animals and plants they didn't have down there, partially as a hobby, but also to give the younger monsters something, since they had never seen the surface themselves. 

Frisk couldn't help but feel bad for them, they hadn't been down there for long, but they missed the sound of birds chirping, when walking through the forest and the changing weather and most of all the sky in general, it was one of the things, that had fascinated them the most. For the monsters and themself, they drew little pictures of animals and landscapes and showed photographs in their Scrapbook to everyone. It helped a bit, but just because they missed those things, they didn't regret their decision one bit. They had come down there out of their own free will and wouldn't go back on that now.

If they weren't outside roaming the Ruins, they would sit in the house and play little games with Flowey and sometimes Toriel, too. Often they would help her in the house or in the little vegetable and fruit garden she owned, as well as tending all the plants throughout the catacombs and keeping the area clean, together with some other monsters. They would read the books from her shelf and ask about details, whenever they didn't understand something. 

After a few days the tall monster had made the decision to give Frisk two hours of tutoring every day. She had said that Frisk was still fairly young and it wouldn't be good to skip out on their education, but first she'd better teach them the basics of the Underground. Which included general things about monsters, magic and SOULs. Thanks to that, they found out what the strange feelings they had gotten at the start had been about. 

From what they understood now, the "heavier" feeling was their 'Inventory' or rather 'ITEMS', it seemed to be a part of the Underworld and somehow connected to their SOUL. After discovering that, the monster taught them how to deal with it. It only provided a limited amount of 'space' and apparently they could put almost anything in it, without it later affecting them in some way. It was weird, to say the least and it made them feel a bit uneasy, since it reminded them too much of a game.

After checking their ITEMS the child noticed, they were carrying the exact things they had picked up while using their SHELL on the Gametop. Flowey guessed that the device must have actually been connected to their SOUL too. Once they had gotten used to this new 'feature' Toriel told them all they needed to know about their SOUL. She warned the child in a strict tone, to take good care of it, since SOULs were far more vulnerable and sensitive, than the body they lived in and forbid them to simply pull out their SOUL to a stranger.

The monster also informed them, that during a serious battle, the opponent might try to pull out their target's SOUL and depending on the willpower of the owner, either fail or succeed. If they succeed, the one with their SOUL out in the open like that, rarely manages to win, usually only by pure luck.

Toriel must have noticed, that all that new information, was a bit too much for the child to process at once and offered to stop at that point and go for a picnic instead. Frisk beamed at that and together they headed into the kitchen to prepare some food, Flowey as usual dragged along by the child. In the middle of making a sandwich, Toriel suddenly received a call on her cellphone and excused herself, to now leave Frisk and Flowey alone in the kitchen.

It was strangely quiet, well the child kept asking what their friend would like to eat and only get short answers, before the plant fell silent again. _He's been like this all day..._  
Whenever they turned to look at him, they'd catch him staring at them before averting his gaze. What had happened to the normally cheerful and talkative flower they knew? It was beyond obvious, that something was off, but they had wanted to wait for Flowey to voice his trouble on his own accord. Didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon though and they didn't want to end up with holes in the back of their head, from the plant's constant staring.

After finishing with their share of preparing food, Frisk turned to Flowey and looked him seriously in the eye.

"Flowey, what's wrong with you today?"

That seemed to have startled the flower a little and he meekly looked at the child standing in front of him, before dropping his gaze to the floor. Still nothing.

"Hey, come on. I know something's wrong... you know you can tell me, right?"

They stepped a little closer, bending slightly, trying to catch the plant's attention. He still kept quiet, but looked conflicted now, it worried Frisk and they grabbed his pot and went to sit on Toriel's gigantic, comfortable armchair in front of the fireplace, with warm (not hot) crimson, slightly magenta flames gently crackling in it. They turned the flower's pot, so he would face them now and repeated the question. He grimaced a little and looked at the fire.

"Flowey... please. We're friends, right?"

At that he snapped towards them saying: "O-of course...!"

Frisk huffed.

"Then tell me what's going on with you lately."

"It's... it's complicated..."

The child raised an eyebrow at that and Flowey continued.

"Actually, these past few days, I've been thinking about telling you... I couldn't help but think, that I'd _have_ to tell you eventually..."

They waited for him patiently, not interrupting the plant, they didn't want to push him too much. After a moment, he seemed to collect himself and looked the child straight in the eyes.

"...I'm going to tell you a story okay? It's a bit long, but I'll try to make it as short as possible."

"Okay then, go ahead."

*** * ***

He cleared his nonexistent throat, before speaking up.

"Uh, well, you already know about that old story, with the first fallen human, right?"

"The basics, yeah."

"W-well, long ago, the royal family had taken that kid in and treated them like their own...  
You know, the history books hid actually a lot of the real story... The King didn't want certain things to be known throughout the whole Underground and so only a few know, what _really_ happened long ago, in the past...  
So, they had taken the kid in, out of kindness and the fact, that barely any monster wanted anything to do with them, after all, it wasn't that long since the great war had ended...  
It also didn't help, that they were.... _odd_. Nonetheless the King and the Queen were always nice to them... and the Prince would try his best to become their friend. The human would increasingly act in their... _strange_ way, with time more and more people had gotten aware of their behaviour. But no one pointed it out, no matter what they did. One time, they even had accidentally poisoned the king, by putting buttercups into a pie... but they hadn't seem too bothered by that.  
Um, one day, they had fallen ill and no one knew the cause for the sickness, or how to help them. Before they died, they had told their... friend, the young Prince, that their last wish would be, to see the flowers of their village one last time. After they were gone... the Prince had absorbed the SOUL of the kid, taken their body and crossed the Barrier.  
It didn't take him long to find the village and he was about to lay their body onto a bed of flowers, just like they had wanted. Suddenly humans rushed towards him, they misunderstood the scene in front of them... and started screaming and shouting, until they eventually attacked him.  
He wanted to run, but was stuck in place, all of a sudden he heard a voice in the back of his head, saying: 'You Idiot.' and 'Fight back already.'  
Only after he was heavily injured, on the verge of death, he had control over his body again, barely making it back into the Underground...  
His parents had already been waiting for him at the entrance... and fell into distress, as it already was too late and their son was dissolving into dust. In his last moments, he heard someone say: 'Crybaby.' and only then had he recognized the voice...  
...But it didn't just end there.  
When the young Prince opened his eyes again... he found himself in between flowers that grew in the castle, for a moment he thought it had all just been a bad dream, a nightmare, but when he tried to stand up...  
...  
He didn't have any legs anymore, he didn't have anything of his body anymore...  
He was scared... scared and confused...  
He cried for his parents... for anyone.  
And when the King found him... he was filled with so much relief, calling out to his father...  
But all hope was crushed, when he harshly pulled him out of the ground.. and... and said, that he wasn't his son...  
A-and that he never wanted to see him anywhere near the castle again...  
H-he threw him on the soil outside and- ...and the prince didn't know what to do... he fled into his old home... and found out.. that after the death of their son... the King couldn't stop grieving... losing himself in it and pulling almost the whole Underground with him...  
A-as for the queen... she apparently had left and built her own reign in their old home....  
M-most monsters got the story told from the king... s-so pretty much no one knew what really happened.. and thanks to that... their hatred towards humanity had grown stronger...  
..and they started taking it out on each other...  
s-so...  
...yeah..."

Tears were dripping onto his pot and only then did he notice he was crying, but looking up he saw, that Frisk also had tears streaming down their face. He immediately felt bad and wanted to apologize to them but they cut him off, by pulling him into a tight hug.

" _Oh god_... Flowey... I'm so sorry, I-i'm so sorry for you..."

"Uh, no, Frisk. It's- It's okay-"

Before he could continue, he felt the child suddenly going stiff and raising their head. When he looked up, he saw them staring wide-eyed at the hallway and followed their gaze.  
...only to regret everything he had done that day.

In the doorframe stood Toriel, stiff, eyes wide open and a paw raised to cover her mouth, while the other tightly clutched the edge of the frame. She also was crying and staring with utter shock and disbelief at the little plant in the child's hands. She seemed to have snapped out of it, as she lowered her paw to her chest and made a shaky step towards them.

"...I-is that true? ...Are you really my child... _A-asriel_..?"

Her voice was thick and strained and had broken at the end of her question.

Frisk now too, stared at the plant and Flowey was close to a seizure.

_Oh god.. what have I done...?_

Since there was nothing else he knew to do at that moment, he just curled up on himself, wishing to just disappear right then and there.

To his shock he suddenly felt drastic movement around him and when he looked up again to see what had caused it, he found himself between Frisk and Toriel, in a tender hug. The child was burrying their face against the back of his petals, while the big monster looked down at him with pained but warm eyes while carefully caressing some of his petals and repeating to mumble in a thick voice: " _...my little baby... my poor Asriel... I can't believe it's you... after so many years..._ "

The flower was at a loss of what to do, he was sure she was going to reject him too, if she found out about him. But here he was, tucked against her short sleeved scarlet dress and being called by his real name again, after what had felt like an eternity. He leaned a bit closer to the monster and tried to hold back a sob.

"Y-you... you still love me...? Even if I'm..."

Toriel looked shocked and her expression turned even more pained than before.

"But of course my dear...! A mother cannot simply abandon her child over a trivial reason such as... My dear, it does not matter what you look like, you will always be my precious little Asriel."

"...You thought Mom wouldn't like you? You're so silly...", added Frisk.

The plant burried his tiny face in his two leaves and started sobbing openly, while the other two were soothing him.

They were laughing and eating together at their little picnic in one of the bigger garden areas, a few monsters had joined in on them as time passed. Toriel rarely even let go of the child and the flower, mostly having them leaned against her form, or on her lap. Frisk was joking around with a Prick, a small rose-like monster, they reminded the child a bit of a fairy too. At first, even though looking so harmless, the flower-monster had instantly attacked the young child and afterwards made fun of them, but to the human's surprise only one simple act of kindness had been enough to turn them into a sweet, helpful little monster.

The same went for the other Pricks, they had found a whole garden full of them, at first mistaking them for real flowers, since they had many different colors. Once they were nice to the child, they acted like curiosity filled little kids, but would still like to gossip about practically everyone with each other. One was okay, but dealing with a big swarm had been extremely draining. Meanawhile, Flowey and Toriel were chatting with a Froggit and Whimsun, it seemed after what had happened a few hours earlier that day, the plant was now okay with talking to the big white monster and even hesitantly called her 'Mom'.  
Everyone was enjoying the late afternoon.

*** * ***

Frisk was changing into their pj's, while Flowey looked at the wall opposite to them, to give the child some privacy, since he couldn't exactly just walk out of the room and the human refused to set him down in the hallway, saying they didn't mind him. Once they were done changing, they had made to grab their dirty clothes, to put them to the laundry, when the flower suddenly spoke up.

"You know... it feels a bit weird, when Tori- ...Mom calls me by my old name..."

"What do you mean? Don't you like being called by your real name? ...ah, wait, what was it again? Asriel?"

"...y-yeah. I hadn't really told you my old name yet, had I? ...Well, it's not that I don't like it, it's just..."

Frisk took their clothes and walked over to him, waiting for him to keep on talking.

"...yeah?", they pressed.

"Well, how do I put this? It's uh, I don't really think... I deserve that name anymore..."

The child looked shocked and immeditately asked "Why?"

"I... _Asriel_ died long ago... I only have these memories... and to be honest, I don't think I even have a SOUL anymore..."

"How can you say that? Look, I don't know what you learned down here, but what I learned is that memories make you who you are and without them, you wouldn't be yourself anymore... So, listen! I think that just because you don't have a SOUL or whatever-"

"You don't understand-"

"-it doesn't make you any less of who you are! You are you, Asriel and you shouldn't throw something like that away. Memories are precious, okay? Promise me you'll never say something like 'not deserving it' ever again."

"..."

"Come on. You're my friend- you're even practically my big brother now! So, please..."

The flower looked away for a moment, before turning back to them again.

"...okay, I promise... I'm sorry, you're right. I shouldn't throw away what little I have left of my past life..."

Frisk smiled widely at that and tucked their dirty clothes under one arm and taking the flowerpot with their other. They walked out of the room, to add their clothes to the laundry and going into the living room afterwards. Toriel was already sitting in their cozy armchair and upon seeing the two entering the room, patted her lap for them to join them, while smiling softly. She read them an old monster fairy tale, about three wanderers trying to cheat a demon, which had promised their death after they had made a deal with it. It wasn't exactly the greatest story for kids, but ...Asriel had whispered to the child, that the monster was changing the story up a bit, making it more suitable for children. He apparently had secretly read the book before and could tell the difference, he added cheekily that a softer version was better for _lil sibs_ like them. Frisk pouted a little and slightly nudged the plant for the comment, only receiving a laugh and an amused, raised eyebrow from Toriel.

Halfway through the story, the flower had fallen asleep and the Guardian suddenly stopped reading, narrowing her eyes at a dark window in the room. That's right, Frisk still needed to get used to the absolute darkness outside, once evening settled in. It seemed that the Barrier immitated a daily cycle, during day hours it would emit a bright enough light, illuminating the majority of the Underground and at night time the light would go away, leaving the Underworld pitch black.

"It is time to go to your bed now, children."

She carefully stood, as not to startle the flower too much when waking him, while Frisk slid down her lap, onto the floor. They took her paw, smiling when she had extended it to her, the child's hand was way smaller than hers, practically drowning in her soft grip. Toriel led them to their room, tucking them into their bed after having put the flowerpot on the nightstand beside it. Once Frisk was settled and comfortable, she pet their head before applying a small kiss to their forehead. When the monster turned to the flower, she carressed his petals, before carefully giving him a goodnight-kiss as well. Afterwards she made her way to the door and wished them goodnight, before leaving and closing the door.

*** * ***

Asriel was about to fall asleep again, when all of a sudden Frisk started talking.

"Hey... why aren't we allowed to leave the house at night?"

"Why _would_ you want to leave the house at night?", he answered groggily.

"Heh, touché."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, sorry- good point."

"..so?"

"Oh yeah, well I've been thinking you know. It's kinda weird how all the monsters immediately go inside their homes the second 'dusk' hits and stay in there till it's bright again... pff- don' say you guys are scared of the dark?"

They had jokingly grinned at the flower, but instantly dropped it, when they saw his expression at their last comment. Were they actually really scared of the dark? Toriel had acted strange towards them at their first night in their new home. She had given them a long lecture about leaving the house when it was dark outside. The monster had told them in a serious and stern voice, that they shouldn't leave their room and roam around the house at night, except if it was really important, then they could come to her room next door and ask for her help. But going outside was a big taboo.

They were about to drop it and just call it a night, when they suddenly heard a strange, rather loud noise outside of their room. It sounded like muffled scratching at wood, but at the same time as if someone had grinded on metal or tried to move some very old and rusty gate. Asriel had shot up from his drowsy state, a look of utter terror on his face. Frisk slowly sat up on their bed and asked the flower what in the world they just had heard, but he simply forced a smile, saying it was nothing and they shouldn't worry about it. Well, if that hadn't been an obvious lie.

The child got up, curiosity sparking within them, the plant made hushed little protests, as they picked him up and went to the door of their room. Standing there and silently contemplating whether they should really dare to step outside, they strained their ears for any other signs of whatever that was. The reasonable part of them felt slightly conflicted about disobeying Toriel, while the adventurous (and slightly rebellious) side of them was nearly screaming at them to go and take a look already. As usual, the latter won.

Carefully opening the door, while Asriel quietly sighed in defeat, they peeked into the corridor, being a bit thankful that this time around, no old hinges were going to bust them any time soon. If it weren't for the little magical lights throughout the whole house, keeping the rooms in a dim, almost natural shade for a typical full moon night on the Surface, they wouldn't have been able to see anything. On tip-toes they made their way out of the room, closing the door behind them and looked around. The noise hadn't sounded like it had come from Toriel's room, or the bathroom at the end of the hall, so they started making their way towards the living room. The child stopped in front of the big staircase leading into the cellar, the white furred monster had also forbidden them to go down there.

Even though they were curious, they thought it'd be better not to break any more rules, than they already had. Besides, the flower they were holding against their small chest, gave them what could basically apply to as _the_ ultimate death glare, when he had noticed their tempted gaze at the stairs.

Frisk quietly shuffled into the living room, scanning the area. What caught their eye, was the fact, that the kitchen didn't have any light. It was almost pitch black, if it weren't for the little source of light, the living room had to offer. They were about to head into said dark room, when they suddenly heard something break in there, sounding like glass or porcelain. The next moment they heard that weird noise again, far louder almost grating their poor ears and the child noticed something about to emerge from the kitchen. 

For some reason their instincts were going haywire, filling them with a primal sense of dread, as they practically were screeching for them to quickly find a place to hide. So Frisk did, barely catching a glimpse of what had made its way into the living room. They defenitely had never seen anything like... _that_ before. The sight alone had already caused them to tremble and curl up in their hiding spot, they noticed that the flower was also shaking horribly and had a blank face.

All the color in their face was gone, as they heard something sounding like a hourrendously distorted howl, behind them.

Life in the Ruins... really could be more pleasant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (how does one even write emotions)


	9. Shadows In The Dark

One moment the child was sitting in their little hiding spot and the next the world turned upside down and they completely started panicking. Shutting their eyes, they were about to scream for help, when suddenly a leaf pressed hard against their mouth, silencing them. Frisk opened their eyes again, to be met with a nervous, but stern look from Asriel. They also noticed vines wrapped around them, in addition to the fact, that they were now sitting on top of the back of Toriel's armchair. The flower gestured the human to stay quiet, by pulling his other leaf up in front of his mouth and then slowly let go of Frisk's mouth.

They understood and then looked past him, at what apparently had just tried to attack them. In front of their previous spot stood an unusual creature, it was hard to make much out, due to the dim light. From what the child could tell, it resembled a very thin, kind of mangled looking dog. There were a few bright stains, reflected by the light, but most of the creature was covered in some strange dark substance, occasionally dripping on the ground. On a closer look, there seemed to be some sort of pitch black floral mass spread around the goo, as they could tell by the numerous small leaves and flowers poking out and some even falling to the ground as it started moving. Making some kind of distorted clicking, flickering, even cackling sound, while turning to shuffle though the room.

They now noticed that the creature's eyes, or at least where they _thought_ the eyes were supposed to be, were completely overgrown. By the way it cautiously stumbled through the living room and even sometimes slightly bumped into things, they got that it must be blind. So that's why the flower wanted them to stay quiet, the thing couldn't find them, if they didn't make any noise. It didn't stop the poor child from shaking though, partially out of fear and adrenaline and partially because the room's temperature suddenly had dropped immensely.

When the creature came a bit too close to the armchair for Frisk's comfort, it made some creepy, strangled choking sound and they now realized, the thing was emitting the cold. Making the child shiver even more, it started slowly turning in their direction and the human stiffened.

_Oh no... Can it smell us?_

The flower's grip on them tightened, he seemed to have the same thought. As the dripping canine-like thing slowly stalked towards the two, Frisk was able to make out a putrid smell coming from it as well and scrunched up their small nose. They shot a panicked look towards their friend, as the beast seemed to have become aware of their presence. He quickly pulled out more vines from his little flowerpot and positioned them protectively in front of them, as the thing all of a sudden lunged towards them. They waited for the impact, but were startled by something resembling a distorted yelp.

" _How **dare** you filthy trash..._ "

When they looked up, they noticed a big dripping stain on the far wall and the creature stumbling to its feet below. On the other end of the room stood a fuming Toriel, baring her sharp teeth, as she gave the beast a disgusted and menacing glare. She looked like a demon to the child, with the horns, glowing red eyes and more than that, _flames_ around her paws. They were a bit darker and wilder, than the usual crimson/magenta flames in the fireplace when it was lit. The big, usually loving monster, looked like something straight out of a nightmare at that moment. She was really scary, but nonetheless Frisk was more than relieved to see her.

With a swift move she sent a big fireball at the thing, making it end up crashing into one of the magical lights. It let out a terrible howl and jumped away from the light, afterwards scrambling towards the Kitchen and when they looked after it, it was already clumsily climbing out the window, into the dark. The Guardian went after it and quickly closed said window, turning the lights on, to be met with a total mess on the floor. She emerged from the kitchen, while running a hand over her exhausted and slightly annoyed face.

"M-Mom...!"

The monster sighed and looked over to the two, sitting on her armchair, with a very stern expression.

"Did I not tell you, to _never_ leave your room at night?"

Both Frisk and Asriel covered away at that, looking at the ground. The child was about to speak up and tell her that it was only their fault, since the flower had tried to stop them. But before they could even open their mouth, Toriel's expression softened and she started talking in a tired, concerned voice.

"Dear... that was extremely dangerous and very foolish of you. You both are not hurt, are you?"

The monster walked over to them and started inspecting both for any injuries.

"N-no... We're okay, thanks to you..."

She let out another sigh and took the child, together with the flowerpot into her arms, when she couldn't find anything. Frisk wasn't worried about being too heavy, since from experience they knew, the big white furred monster was more than capable to carry them, also considering their difference in height.

"You two were lucky I was woken by the noise..."

"Y-yeah... um, Mom? _What_ exactly was that thing?"

At that, the monster looked away and when the child turned to look at the flower, he did the same. After a moment of heavy silence, she started talking again.

"...I was hoping, that I would not have to be having this conversation with you so soon, dear... It is already very late and children, such as youreself, should be sleeping by now. I will need to clean up this mess, before going to bed as well."

Frisk was about to point out, that she was avoiding the question, but they were interrupted by her again.

"...Do not worry, I will answer all of your questions tomorrow. I would _have_ to inform you, eventually..."

With that, she brought them to their room and tucked them into their bed, for the second time that day. The flower didn't seem up for talking, so even if it took them a while, they went to sleep and could barely wait for the next day.

*** * ***

Toriel had been very thorough at cleaning up the rooms, they almost doubted the incident, the night before, had even happened in the first place, if it weren't for the shards of a broken plate lying in a bowl near the sink.

_So that's what shattered in the kitchen..._

After finding a note from Toriel, saying that she was out for groceries, they ate their breakfast in silence. When she returned, they were still sitting at the table, but had already cleaned the dishes from their meal. Waiting patiently, the child watched as she set the bags on the counter and seemed to contemplate, whether to deal with the groceries first, or ease the human's curiousity. Frisk was a bit relieved, when she deemed, answering the child's questions was more important at that moment. The monster joined them at the table and looked Frisk in the eyes. After a while, they understood that Toriel was waiting for them to speak up, so they shiftend a bit and cleared their throat.

"...uh, so. What happened yesterday?"

"...It seems I was careless and had forgotten to properly close the window in the kitchen, before going to bed. In addition, for some unknown reason, one of the Sentry-Lights had stopped working. Due to that, there was nothing hindering a fallen one to enter this house."

"Fallen?"

"...The creature you saw yesterday, that was what we call a 'Fallen'."

"Why are they called like that?"

"You see, that _thing_ used to be a monster once."

Frisk's eyes widened at that, how could such an atrocity of a creature, once have been one of the funny and kind monsters they knew? Toriel closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose.

"Long ago, when us monsters were locked into the Underground, we also had noticed this 'daily cycle' the Barrier offered. At first, many monsters believed it would be a useful feat, maybe human's weren't as cruel as they had proven to be during the great war.  
...We were wrong. It took some time, but eventually we became aware of other _entities_ roaming the Underworld. We call them 'Hollows'. As the name says, they are devoid of any emotions, moral or common sense. It is pointless to try and interact with them, so far they have not shown any form of intelligence. You rarely ever get to see one, since they are sensitive to any source of light and they themself aren't any threat. They never act hostile towards anything, but... they are extremely toxic.  
If you were to come in contact with them for a long amount of time, it would easily kill you. But if a monster somehow came in contact with them, or the black ooze they emit, for even a short moment, then they would get... 'infected' with a strange plague. Now, that was very unfamiliar for us monsters to deal with, since we never had gotten 'sick' before. As no one knew what to do, more and more monsters had gotten infected. It seemed this 'virus' was also able to spread if the infected monsters directly interacted with others.  
At first they would show, what for you humans must be 'typical signs of a flu' and it would steadily get worse. They would cough up a dark substance, similar to the 'black ooze', but not as lethal and start acting unusal. With time, their exterior would change drastically, they would be covered in a dark fluid and also end up being overgrown by some sort of black plant. They would lose their mind and any form of reason, similar to the Hollows, except those monsters would constantly act aggressive and feral towards anything they met.  
Unfortunately it turns out, there is no cure for their problem. Many of us doubt we would even really be able to help them if we ever were to find one, as it turned out, the worse their state got, the more they lost their SOUL. In no time they would be reduced to nothing more than empty beasts. To our advantage, they seem to also grow sensitive towards light, the more they develop. So, at least we are safe around day hours and also usually thanks to the magic enforced Sentry-Lights. They normally ward off the weaker ones, but there is no hope, when it comes to stronger ones.  
In the end, there is nothing of the monster, they once used to be, left in them... That is why we call them the 'fallen' ones."

That was a bit much to take in. They had never thought, that something like that might go on in the Underground. They felt sorry for all the monsters that had to live under such circumstances, even more for the ones that they called 'Fallen'. Frisk frowned at the thought of humans, the species they belonged to, to have been as cruel as to force a whole civilization to end up in a potential death trap with no escape. 

_No escape..._

But they had been able to enter the Underground, hadn't they? Did the people, who made the Barrier, really not consider the thought, of a human accidentally falling down? That couldn't be true... The child couldn't help but believe, that there had to be _some_ way to break the Barrier.

"Mom, do you know if there's a way to get you guys out of here?"

Toriel looked surprised.

"What do you mean my child? I am sorry, but if you are suggesting us to leave the Ruins, I will have to tell you, out there it is far worse, than these catacombs could ever be... And I am not only talking about the Fallen ones here..."

Frisk's frown deepend.

"Uh, no. I meant, like, _out_. Out of the Underground, all monsters."

The Guardian's eyes widened at that and she opened her mouth to say somethig, but the human interrupted her.

"I just... It's terrible that all of you have to suffer down here... I don't like it."

"Frisk...", Asriel said in a strange tone.

"Dear... I really appreciate how you feel... but..."

As Toriel didn't continue, the flower spoke up for her.

"Look, it's complicated. Technically, there _is_ a way to break the Barrier... but no one here wants to use it, at least no one in the Ruins..."

Frisk gave him a questioning look and he kept talking.

"The... _method_ we'd have to use... it's really horrible, okay? It's better if you don't know the details, trust me."

"Asriel is right, my child... It would be better, to not think about such things as those."

The human was thinking for a while, okay, so there was a way to get rid of the Barrier, but apparently not one they would like... Frisk didn't want to give up just yet, there had to be some other way, there _always_ was another way. As if they could just sit around and do nothing about the obvious problem, they recently had found out about.

"Is there really only one way to break it? There have to be other options, too."

The tall monster just looked away, with a pained expression. That was it? Did no one down there ever try anything else? Frisk didn't want to believe it, maybe they were childish, but they didn't care. They were a child after all, so they had the right to hope and dream all they want. To both parties' surprise, the flower in the pot on the table suddenly spoke.

"Actually... If I recall... I think I once met someone, who could know a way out."

They both looked shocked at that, Toriel more out of disbelief and Frisk with a little twinkle in their eyes. They practically bombarded the flower with questions.

"U-um, well, it was long ago and I don't even know if they're still alive... but I'm sure, that person said something about there being other options, than..."

He cast the big monster a strange look, the child couldn't describe, before adding:

"... _that_."

The Guardian fiddled a bit with her thumbs and looked up to talk to him.

"Who was that person?"

"I-i don't know. They lived somewhere far, hidden. Outside of the Ruins."

"How do you know you can trust their words, my dear?"

"Well, I remember that they weren't a bad person... And they didn't seem to have much contact with anyone else. It probably sounds a bit suspicious, but I still know that they were really wise, they knew a lot of things."

"Someone like that lives here in the Underground? How come I have never heard about them?"

"I don't know... I remember, that I'd found their place by accident, the first time. The 'entrance' to their home kept shifting, always being somewhere else... I'd have to look around to find it, but since I already know what it's like, I think I'd be able to recognise it, once I saw it again..."

"If that is so...", Toriel trailed off a bit stunned. 

Frisk was now practically beaming at the flower, they blurted out, that they only needed to find that 'mystery person' and the monsters could be free. Asriel said that it wasn't _that_ simple, but it wasn't hopeless either. The child turned towards the monster, with a big grin on their face.

" _ **No.**_ "

Their face fell a bit at Toriel's curt answer, before they even had the chance to ask their question.

"It would really be wonderful, if there was another way to get rid of the Barrier, but I cannot let you go out there by yourselves. It is far too dangerous and I am afraid I would not be able to guide you, as the Ruins need me."

"But, Mom-"

" _Frisk_ , dear, I said no."

At that the plant meekly spoke up.

"Um, sorry Mom, but I think I'm in this with Frisk. We can't just sit around and do nothing forever, slowly _rotting_ away. Especially not, if we know about a possible way to change everything. Besides, you wouldn't have to go with us. Frisk is more than capable of taking care of themself, they _did_ climb the mountain all by themself after all, in a storm if I might add. Besides, when it comes to dealing with monsters and so, I could protect them. I think I've lived long enough in the Underground, to know how to avoid most of them."

Toriel was about to say something, but shut her mouth, as she actually seemed to consider it.

"Excuse me. Give me a moment.", she mumbled as she slowly stood from the table and walked into the kitchen. She stood there for a while, deep in thought, while she shifted a bit from time to time. Only after a good couple of minutes did she let out a long, tired sigh and looked at them, with a hint of deafeat in her eyes.

"....alright."

Frisk literally jumped out of their chair at that and went to hug the monster's legs. The Guardian picked them up, to give them a proper hug and went over to the flower on the table.

"I will let you leave... but only in a week, understood? Until then I want you two to enjoy your time here and... you have to promise me, you will be careful."

The two promised her to take good care of each other and thanked her, smiling. Frisk could barely await to see what the rest of the Underground actually was like, while Asriel gave them a reassuring smile, as he mentally prepared himself for the upcoming struggle. If Toriel had known, that the Underworld had become even worse after she had left, the flower could have bet his remaining good petals, that she would have never agreed to them.

_Oh boy... This is going to be fun..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so far, so good  
> In the next chapter their loooong struggle is gonna begin  
> (little spoiler: there will be bones)


	10. Treacherous Snow

After one very long week, the day had finally come for them to leave. Toriel was still a bit reluctant to let them go, but just looking at the way Frisk's eyes sparkled, she couldn't resist them anymore. She had helped them pack their things, which ended up being almost everything they owned. Well it wasn't like the child had taken that much with them in the first place, thanks to the newly discovered Inventory space, they even took a bit more with them. The big monster had prepared them some food for the way, they stored that in their Inventory too, so nothing would spill or go to waste. She also had given them some extra gold and a cellphone, it was a pretty old model, she told them to call her if they needed help, or just felt like talking to her. The Guardian added, that she wouldn't give calls, only receive ones, in case they needed to be quiet or hide.

When she was finished giving them a long lecture, she led them down her stairs, into what Frisk had believed to be the cellar. They were a bit confused at first, but realized, that it was some kind of long hallway, leading to a gigantic door. They stopped in the room behind that door, it reminded the child of the flower's little patch at the entrance of the catacombs. Toriel turned towards them and knelt down, to talk in a somewhat even eye level. She looked a bit pained, as she told them to be careful and wished them the best luck, also hoping their little journey wouldn't take too long. She reminded Frisk, to stay away from the King, since reasoning with him would be impossible and asked Asriel to make sure, they wouldn't be stubborn about it and go anyway.

The monster gave them a long, loving hug and placed a kiss on each head. She told them, that they are always free to return, if anything happens, they are always welcome in the Ruins and her and the flower doubt, anyone would have the guts, to try and trespass her territory. The child didn't question the last part and instead thanked her with a big smile. Toriel held onto them for a moment longer, before slowly getting up and carefully pushing the big double door, made of stone, open.

Now the child understood, why she had insisted on them wearing their hat and scarf, in addition to their coat. The moment the door had opened a crack, a strong, icy gust had made it's way into the Ruins, it was a stark contrast to the pleasant temperature of the catacombs. They hadn't thought the snow area would be this close to their current position. Shifting the flowerpot a bit, so they could cover their hands with their jacket sleeves, the human started walking through the door. Once they stood a few feet away from it, Frisk turned around to smile and wave at the monster looking after them with concern in her eyes. She imitaded the gesture, before slowly closing the gate again.

They let out a long, quiet breath, watching the cold create a small visible puff of air in front of them, as they mentally braced themself for the upcoming little adventure.

*** * ***

The whole area was covered in a thick layer of soft snow, going up over their ankles. In front of them was a relatively obvious path, since everything around it was covered in tall, dark trees, maybe pines of some sort. From what they had read in Toriel's books, they should be near a small town called Snowdin, but since the plant in their hands had told them to better avoid the crowds, they would have to opt with the giant forest around it. The child thought, they were a bit lucky to have grown up near a big forest already and could deal with that. It still felt a bit weird for them to not get close to any monsters, Asriel had told them, that the monsters outside of the Ruins were more aggressive and not very fond of humans. Apparently, even if most of them wouldn't be able to recognize a human, they still didn't like intruders.

Frisk started walking along the path, they didn't want to get lost in the woods yet, so they better stuck to it, as long as they got the chance to. Unfortunately, the whole place was engulfed in a mysterious fog, making it a bit hard for them to see very far. They were so busy taking in their surroundings, that the child almost had tripped over a thick branch, lying in the middle of the road, if it weren't for their dear friend in their arms. Frisk thanked him, before carefully stepping over the piece of wood and continuing their way. Not long after, they stopped and shifted the flowerpot in their hands a bit.

"'m sorry As, I think I can't hold you much longer, the pot is really cold. Is it okay if I put you in my backpack?"

"Of course. I wouldn't want your fingers falling off because of me.", he chuckled.

So the child crouched and put the flowerpot on the ground, getting their backpack off, they opened it and made enough room for the flower to fit. Thank goodness, the Underground had Inventories. They gently positioned the pot in it and closed the backpack, leaving a big enough gap for their friend, to stick his head out. Slowly sliding the bag on, they got up and were ready to resume walking.

"Comfortable?"

"Hehe. I've had better, but at least it's a bit warmer in here-"

_**SNAP** _

They both squeaked and Frisk quickly turned around, to see that the branch they had passed a few seconds ago, was now snapped in half and staring innocently back at them. Okay, so things like that didn't just happen _like that_ , they knew something, or _someone_ was playing with them. The child backed up a couple of feet and started walking in a faster pace, the flower behind them had gotten just as tense. They couldn't help but feel, like something was watching them in the bushes.

_What a great start..._

As they started making out something that looked like a wooden bridge through the fog, they were almost jogging towards it. Before they even had the chance to step on it, they gave a small yelp, as something hard and cold had hit them square on the back of their head. They grabbed blindly behind them and were shocked and relieved to see it was a bunch of snow.

_Did someone just...?_

The next second another snowball hit their side and they jumped from surprise.

"W-what the- HEY!"

Before the flower could have stopped them, the child had already shouted into the forest and stomped their foot on the ground. Fantastic, now how long would it take a horde of monsters to find-

"gee so feisty."

Frisk turned to look at the owner of the voice, only to be met with a monster seeming to hold back a laugh and a strange glint in his eyes, well _eyesockets_. He reminded them a bit of a skeleton, probably a good head taller than them and he was wearing a big black jacket, with white fluffy fur poking out from his hood. He also wore a grey sweater and black pants, while their gaze went back to his head, they noted he was missing a left tooth, as they could see from his wide grin, in addition to cracks running from there, over his eyesocket and up to his forehead.

"nice."

The flower was able to make out a quiet 'well that never happened before', which Frisk seemed to have overheard, as they balled their hands into small fists and were giving the monster in front of them a hard look... which just made them look like an angry kitten. The guy threw a snowball a couple of times in the air, before slowly letting it drop to the ground, the wide grin dissappeared, leaving an almost bored expression on his face. He mustered the human with a slightly raised... uh, _brow_? As his gaze flickered towards the flower, his expression hardened for a second, before going back to nonchalant, it was long enough for the plant to catch. 

He had met him before and the same went for the other, Asriel doubted the guy would've forgotten their little encounter. It was better not to deal too long with the monster, the plant was already thinking of ways to get away from him, as he suddenly spoke up.

"you're a human, ain't ya? what'cha doin' down here?"

"I'm Frisk. We're looking for something."

The flower almost choked at that, hissing the child's name in their ear. So much for 'avoiding' and 'not getting close to' monsters, it was going to be a long journey, if they didn't get themself killed first.

"huh. well, what could a tiny human like you be possibly looking for in a place like this?"

They shifted a bit and gazed to the side, thinking about what they could tell him and then looked at him again.

"'s something important. Anyway, what's your name?"

They gave him a genuine smile, which had seemed to throw him off a bit, before he frowned ever so slightly and hesitantly answered them.

"...the name's sans. but you can call me mic if ya want."

The child nudged the flower beside their face a bit, giving him a long stare, until he understood.

"...I'm Flowey.  
Uh, but my friends call me Asriel.", he added as Frisk had given him a disapproving look.

"Okay! So, what are _you_ doing here, Mic?"

He blinked for a second and a smirk started slowly spreading on his face.

"'m lookin' for somethin'."

"Too? What is it?"

The smirk grew even wider at that and it made the child a bit uneasy.

"humans."

*** * ***

The day had barely even started and the skeleton was already done with the entire world. His brother had oh so _very gently_ kicked him out of his sleep, even though he had just managed to close an eyesocket a few minutes ago. Due to his sleep deprived state, it ended in a loud argument, in a way he saw it as a nice change, they hadn't had those in forever. But it still drained him, making him feel even more like shit. After being a bit more awake, he apologized for yelling at him and had gotten a long, loud rant, mixed a bit with a lecture about his 'apparent lack of self-care' in return and as a bonus he would have to sift through all reports by himself for the next few days. Fan-fucking-tastic.

He was practically, if not even literally at some point, dragged to work and his brother left him at his sentry station, informing him that he'd come back for a report in a couple of hours. Well usually, he'd use the opportunity to get a few hours of sleep, but thanks to a certain _freak_ he can hardly leave his eyesockets closed for more than five seconds, leaving him as a nervous, jumpy mess.

It's been going like that for days, hell, _weeks_ even. The last 'Reset' had already been weird enough, it had taken almost forever for time to flow normally again, he had stopped counting at two months. Then, all of a sudden, it had started again, almost scaring the life out of him by doing so. He had waited at the entrance to the Ruins, thinking 'back to the routine i guess' and already hidden in the underbrush. He waited... and waited... But nobody came. It made him grow steadily uneasy, feeling even more out of control than he already was.

Days passed by and the human still didn't show up. It had made him paranoid, half expecting to see a crazed freak jump out at him at any moment. He could barely even sleep, it drove him insane.

Later that day, he went to the big purple door as usual and had started to get a bit fidgety, as he heard muffled noises from the other side. At first he thought he just imagined it, but when he leaned closer, he made out _voices_. He couldn't tell what they said and he didn't know who they belonged to, but he still went to his familiar spot on a branch from the closest tree to the entrance, not too high up. He waited in anticipation, staring at the double door for anything to happen.

And he was rewarded, when he heard the doors open and a figure stepped out of it. It was particulary foggy that day, but he didn't need to see them clearly, to know who it was.

_They sure took their sweet time..._

Before long, he did his 'usual thing', trying to mess with the human a little. Sure he had tried acting in different ways before, but that was long ago, before he understood, that no matter what he did, it wouldn't change shit. What surprised him, if not even shocked him, was that this time around, they reacted completely untypical for them. They even _squeaked_ when they were hit by a snowball, normally they would strut unfazed through the place, not giving a rat's ass about anything that happened around them. 

He couldn't help laughing at the ridiculous little antics they were making, he didn't really care anyway if it would blow his cover already. When they turned towards him, he kept his act, but was mentally freaking out. It was a completely different kid.

Sure, they had similarities, but it was still obvious, they even were a whole bit shorter than the usual. When had they entered the Underground? Was the other one still running around, ready to strike any moment? What shocked him even more, was how _innocent_ they acted. How many years had it been since the last time he'd seen anyone else down there showing _any_ form of kindness. It made him even more cautious about this one, but he decided to play along for now. If he's going down anyway, he might as well have some fun.

*** * ***

All color had been drained from the child's and their companion's face, eyes wide in growing fear. What were they supposed to do? The flower had warned them and they still had went and talked to the stranger, like it was the most logical thing to do. The child mentally kicked themself. They stared at him with wary eyes, the little white pinpricks, that could have qualified as eyes, in his eyesockets were gone, leaving two dark empty holes. Why did monsters always seem to have the ability, to look like living nightmares whenever they felt like it?

"pff- oh man, you should've seen your face."

The pinpricks were back now and he chuckled to himself.

"c'mon, lighten up. i'm just jokin' with ya."

"Very funny.", added the flower bitterly.

"well, basically i'm s'pposed to be on human watch now. i'm a sentry y'see, it's kinda my job to capture ya. but don' worry kiddo, i'm not really up to it right now."

He gave them a wink and his grin grew a bit bigger, before his look went back to an unreadable, kind of bored kind.

"don' think i can say the same 'bout my bro, tho. he's a total human hunting _fanatic_ , like 24/7. if i were in your bones, i wouldn' hang too long 'round here."

He kept occasionally tugging around his throat while he was talking. On a closer look, they noticed he was wearing a metal collar, they hadn't even really seen it, thanks to his gray sweater. He had caught their questioning gaze and raised a 'brow'.

"what, this thing?", he said, while tapping on the collar, making it resonate with each tap. He put his hands in his coat pockets and looked at the ground.

"well, kid, tha's what's gonna happen to ya, if you run into my bro, as much i can tell ya. well in my case, it's more of a 'time out' thing, as he likes to call it."

For a second they thought, they'd seen a sour look flash over his face at the last comment, but it was gone just as quickly. Before they could say anything, they suddenly heard a loud, husky shout in the distance.

The skeleton's face turned into something akin to when Frisk looks at a list of chores they would have to do. He looked at the human again, mumbling a 'speak of the devil', before telling them to better scram, if they didn't want to end up with a new accessory around their neck. They ran into the forest, but stopped not too far from the way, if his brother would be a problem to them, it'd be better to know what he even looked like in the first place, who knew how many other skeletons were running around the place. They ignored the flower's tiny pleas to just get away already and crouched behind some bushes.

Not too long after, a very tall skeleton in menacing black and red armor was marching angrily towards the other one, a tattered red cape swaying slightly in the breeze behind him. He was almost the complete opposite to his brother, gritting sharp fangs tightly and holding onto what seemed to be a helmet. He stopped right in front of him, slightly bending down and sounded ready to explode any moment.

"...MAY I ASK YOU, WHY YOU ARE STANDING USELESSLY IN THE SNOW, WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT YOUR STATION, _DOING YOUR JOB_?"

The shorter skeleton just looked to the side, giving a tired sigh. Even from their spot a good couple of feet away, the child could tell that he clearly didn't intend to even listen to him in the first place. What kind of brothers were those two supposed to be? After Sans didn't answer, they understood why he wasn't even trying to listen, since from that point his brother started rambling in a nerve grating voice, about properly doing his job, following orders and apparently being a 'lazy pile of bones'. Suddenly he stopped mid rant and was staring at the ground, with an undescribable expression. The other skeleton seemed to notice something was off and slowly gave his brother a wary look.

"SANS... WHO HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO?"

For a second his eyesockets widened, but he quickly put up the bored look again, covering his surprise.

"...what do you mean, boss?"

"DON'T TAKE ME FOR STUPID, _BROTHER_ "

He spat the last word like venom and pointed to the ground, the shorter skeleton became even paler as he lowered his gaze to the ground (if that even was possible). It didn't take the child long, to know what he meant.

_Shoot. The footprints...!_

It hadn't snowed the entire time, since their arrival, so of course there would be their obvious footprints on the ground.

"OTHER MONSTERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ROAM THE AREA NEAR THE RUINS... SO WHAT ARE THESE DOING HERE?"

"u-uh, look, it's kinda complicated-"

_**CRACK** _

Frisk gasped as they had accidentally stepped on a small stick while shifting nervously in their hiding spot. Both heads shot in their direction and they covered even lower into the bushes. Maybe if they were lucky, he would dismiss it as something else-

"I KNOW YOU ARE THERE! SHOW YOURSELF, YOU COWARD!"

Great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was supposed to be longer, but i couldn't finish it  
> so i split it up :T
> 
> Have a good day!


	11. Treacherous Snow II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it continues

They didn't even dare to move an inch, what were they supposed to do? Come out, as they were told? Try their luck and run away? Sans had recognized them as a human, would his brother, too? They were so lost in thought, that they hadn't even noticed the tall skeleton stomping towards them, until black bones were already piercing the ground around them, a bit too close to comfort.

The child gasped and quickly shot away from them, out in the open. When they looked up, a menacing monster was pretty much gaping at them in disbelief. Seems like he could tell the difference between a monster and a human. Asriel was shouting at them to get up and run away, so they did. They were still able to make out a huff from the towering monster, as they made their way through the woods.

"SANS! MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL FOR ONCE AND CAPTURE THE HUMAN!"

Said skeleton raised a brow at that.

" _'scuse me?_ why don't you do it yourself?"

The taller monster growled through gritted teeth.

" _SANS...!_ "

"okay, okay. geez, calm down."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, before disappearing into thin air.

Meanawhile the child was struggling through the snowy forest, jumping over fallen branches, climbing over dead trees and sometimes almost slipping on the unstable ground. The flower kept helping them and warning them, whenever they were close to stepping on some holes in the ground. Frisk kept looking back, to see if anyone was following them and before they even realized what had happend, the ground beneath their feet gave away and they screamed out of instinct and sudden panic. Closing their eyes, to wait for the impact, they had drawn their arms up over their face... but nothing happened. When they opened them again, they saw that they were dangling over sharp, big wooden spikes. Looking up, they noticed that their friend had extended a couple of vines and dug them into the wall above them, some others were securely tied around the child.

"W-wow. Thanks As... I can't believe you have the strenght to hold me."

The flower looked pretty proud at that and formed his little stem in a way, that could remind one of puffing one's chest.

"Hehe. I may be a flower, but I'm much stronger than you think!"

Frisk snorted. "Flower Power."

The plant gave them a confused look and they just shook their head, while trying to surpress a laugh. With the help of their companion, they were outside of the spike pit in no time. Unfortunately they had managed to cut their hand on a long nail on the ground, making them hiss and grip it tightly. They didn't have much longer to think about their injury, as they heard someone call in the distance. Immediately they scrambled back to their feet and started running again, this time with a better look at their surroundings.

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't know they'd set up traps in the forest."

"It's okay. It's not your fault.", the child huffed, while running.

After not too long, the icy air became a bit too much for the human's lungs, making it harder to breath with each step. The wind wasn't of any help either, with teary and stinging eyes they scanned the area for some kind of hiding spot. They skidded to a halt, right in front of a small slope, it was covered by some bushes. Frisk carefully hopped down and pressed their body close to the wall, hoping they would get a long enough break to catch their breath and soothe their aching throat.

*** * ***

Why did he always have to do the dirty work? Well, not like he really cared, but he wasn't exactly a fan of doing much in the first place. Thanks to the snow it was pretty easy to follow the kid, he just kept using quick 'shortcuts' and kept his gaze on the tracks. A part of him hoped they would be clever enough to slip away, even if the whole thing probably was just an act, they didn't seem like they had hurt anyone yet. Goddamn hope. Making him root for most likely another crazy lunatic.

At some point he heard a short scream in the distance, panic started crawling it's way into the back of his skull. He called out to the human, but didn't get any answer, well what did he expect? Making his way towards the direction, he thought the scream had come from, his eyelights followed the footprints on the ground, until they ended right in front of a big hole in the ground.

"aw _shit_."

He carefully rushed over to the spike pit, bent over it to look down and let a relieved breath out, as he didn't find anything in it. Well seems they were lucky with this one, but the whole damn forest was filled with deathtraps, it would just be a matter of time for them to get themself killed... If a monster didn't find them first.

He noticed a little change in their tracks. The skeleton frowned, if what he thought it may be, turned out to be true, then they might get killed by something even worse than traps or monsters in no time.

*** * ***

The child was struggling to keep their eyes open, they were burning from the cold and their lungs didn't feel any better either. The flower was a great help at keeping them from shutting them for too long, he kept gently nudging them whenever they looked like they were going to fall asleep any moment. They gave him a little smile and he returned it.

"sup kiddo."

Frisk jumped as suddenly a figure appeared out of nowhere next to them. The child's eyes went wide and they slipped on the frozen mud beneath them, the skeleton had already extended an arm to stop them from falling on their back (and possibly crushing the flower).

"calm there. you don' wanna end up hittin' your head, do ya?"

They warily pulled their arm out of his grasp and eyed the monster.

"Thanks..."

They glanced around the area.

"H... How did you find me so fast?"

He gave a tiny sigh, creating a small puff of air in front of him.

"footprints, buddy. thought you got that by now... 'sides, you're bleeding."

The skeleton frowned at the last part, looking at their injured hand, which they instantly hid behind their back.

"okay, look. i don' wanna do this either, but you gotta come with me."

The child narrowed their eyes at the monster and carefully took a step back, while the flower next to their face was downright glaring at him.

"listen. papyrus is gonna get pissed eventually, either you let yourself be captured now and maybe get away with only a little scar on your tiny hand, or you'll have to deal with my bro himself.  
and trust me, you don' wanna know what he's like when he's really angry."

He extended his hand to the child and they looked startled at it. Contemplating on what to do, their gaze went over to their friend, who just kept glaring at the monster.

"...kid, you ain't gonna survive for long out here, if you don' come with me. whether you die in one of the traps, or get caught by another monster, i doubt you'd even survive the night. especially the way you are now."

The monster's gaze flickered towards the hand, they were trying to hide again at the last comment. As the child looked over to the flower, they noticed he stared at their hand with some sort of realization in his eyes. Asriel looked at the monster again and gave him a hard look.

"...Fine."

Frisk's eyes widened at that and they stared at their friend in disbelief.

"...I hate to admit it, but he's right. They, the... Fallen will get attracted to your blood."

Before the child could protest, or say anything else, the plant told the skeleton, that they were going to let themselves be captured. After giving in to the flower's look, the human hesitantly took the monster's hand.

*** * ***

As soon as Sans had led them to his brother, the taller skeleton already put a metal collar, attached to a chain, around their neck. Thanks to the thick red scarf, they were wearing beneath, they nearly choked on it. While they weren't exactly gently led by papyrus, the shorter monster gave them a mix of a reassuring, but apologetic smile. It didn't really help.

The whole walk, they had to endure Papyrus' loud voice, while he complained about his brother, but he also added a small praise for catching them, even though, from the taller skeleton's opinion, he could've done better. Yet again, the shorter skeleton didn't seem like he was even remotely trying to listen, but maybe he was, they couldn't really tell that well, since he had his hood up and was walking in front of the human. The only sign of life they got from him, besides walking, were occasional coughs. It made the child frown in confusion, they thought monsters couldn't get sick, could they?

They used the chance to take in their surroundings. They had to pass a couple of 'puzzles', reminding them of the deactivated ones in the Ruins, except these weren't deactivated. Strangely enough, they hadn't met any other monsters yet, well, it was probably around noon by now and maybe they were having lunch. Frisk didn't dwell too Long on it, as they passed a very old wooden sign, half frozen and with faded paint, it only had 'SNOWDIN' written on it. They looked around and had to say, it wasn't exactly a very big town. The child noticed a good amount of rundown, empty houses. Hadn't the books in Toriel's home said that all the homes were housed, since the monsters only had built as many buildings, as they needed? They remembered their talk with the Guardian and realized, that many of the houses must be empty, because of the plague. They felt sorry for the monsters, who once owned those small homes.

After a good while, they finally reached a pretty big lodge, it kind of stood out from the rest of the town and that wasn't just because it was positioned at the edge of it. They passed it and suddenly stopped in front of a small shack, right next to it. Papyrus turned to his brother and tugged a bit at the child's chain, almost making them cough.

"-AND DO NOT EVEN THINK, JUST BECAUSE THE HUMAN IS HERE, I WOULD HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOUR PUNISHMENT, SANS. YOU WILL SHARE THE SHED WITH IT, IS THAT CLEAR? AND KEEP A GOOD EYE ON IT."

"yeah, whatever."

The tall monster huffed at his answer and started pulling the poor child into the shack, after unlocking it. Sans just slowly trudged after them, as the human was already being chained to the wall. Not long after, they both sat in silence in a small cell, the space seperated by iron bars, to hinder them from trying to escape. The room barely had anything in it, there only seemed to be one single bed, which the skeleton now was sitting on. They still looked around, taking in the small details. The child noticed that a thin layer of dust coated the room, it made them grow stiff. Sure, it could just be _normal_ dust, but from what they had learned from Toriel, it could also be...

They didn't want to think about it and focused on other things they noticed in the shed. After gazing through the room, over and over again, they started making out strange patterns on the brown wood. At some places the walls and the ground would be a darker shade than the others, that wasn't really unusal for wood, but there just was something about the way the color changed, that gave them a weird tingling sensation in the back of their mind. Like something obvious, yet they couldn't put their finger on it. As they stared at a particular spot on the ground, something clicked in their head and they caught their breath. They were old, faded _blood stains_.

The human started to tremble and it wasn't just because of the cold ground. Rather ungracefully the door swung open and a tall, scary skeleton strode into the shed, to the child's surprise holding a steaming plate in one of his big, armored hands. He unlocked the metal gate to their cell and made his way in, not sparing the child a single glance. In a swift move, he practically shoved the plate into the smaller skeleton's hands, almost causing half of it's content to spill. The towering monster bent a little, crossed his arms and frowned at Sans.

"YOUR LUNCH. AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT SKIPPING THIS ONE, THAT PLATE BETTER BE EMPTY ONCE I RETURN."

The shorter skeleton shifted said plate a bit in his grip, to properly view its contents and just gave him a slightly bemused look afterwards.

"I'M HEADING OUT FOR NOW, MAKE SURE THE HUMAN DOESN'T TRY ANYTHING _FUNNY_ WHILE I'M GONE. AND I SWEAR, IF I FIND ANY SCRAPS BEHIND THE HOUSE AGAIN, I WILL PERSONALLY-"

Muffled ringing could be heard outside and he straightened, exclaiming he had to go and could not waste any more time on them. He finally turned towards the child and they wished he hadn't. The monster was wearing a hinted, but still obvious enough, grim expression as he started to speak again.

"AS FOR THE HUMAN... I HAVE ALREADY INFORMED THE OTHERS ABOUT IT, ORDERS ARE TO BRING IT TO THE CASTLE TOMORROW."

Both Frisk's and Sans' eyes widened in at that.

"...why so soon? they've barely even been here for a couple o' hours."

"...IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE SOME KIND OF JOKE."

"what, uh, no-"

He was cut off by Papyrus, as he sharply turned to look at Sans, who just scowled in return before looking to the side and mumbling 'nevermind'. The taller skeleton huffed and stomped out of the cell, not forgetting to lock up, of course, before he was gone. For a moment the shed had gone back to its silence, until the child heard a tired sigh, followed by shuffling. Sans had gotten up with the plate in one hand and sowly made his way towards the human. He settled on the floor next to them and gently dropped his lunch in front of the child. It was spaghetti with meatballs and a fork stuck in it. They gave the skeleton a questioning look and he shrugged.

"dig in. i don' think i can really _stomach_ anything at the moment anyway."

They carefully took the fork and poked a bit in the food. Sure, they liked spaghetti and they appreciated the gesture, but they still eyed the dish warily.

"c'mon it's not exactly that good, but you rarely get anything better down here. i doubt my bro is gonna give ya any food till mornin', so you should eat while you can. 'sides, it ain't poisoned or anything."

At that Frisk smiled a little and tried a bit of the food.

"...at least i hope not."

The child almost choked on their first bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kinda struggled with the last bit, but that's most likely due to lack of sleep  
> doesn't make it suck less


	12. New Friends

He couldn't help laughing as he watched the kid struggle with their meal, patting them on their back and getting a small 'sorry' out between laughs. The skeleton withdrew his arm quickly again, to cover his mouth with it and suddenly broke out into a coughing fit. He was sure he heard the human mumble something about 'karma', before they started to give him a concerned look. The monster waved at the kid and said that he just hadn't laughed like that in a long time. They didn't seem to question him any further after that. Good.

When they were done with their food, after Sans had to assure them several times, that it really wasn't poisoned or anything, they were about to lean over and put the plate in front of the bed. The second they had put their free hand on the ground, the kid winced and pulled their arm cose to their chest. Oh right, the injury. The skeleton took the empty dish from them and asked them to show him their hand. After a while they hesitantly extended their arm towards him. It was a long, rough cut through their palm, not exactly deep, but apparently had bled a lot and didn't look too good. The human frowned as they stared at their injured hand.

"I really hope it's not infected..."

He didn't ask what exactly they meant with that and opted for another question.

"does it hurt?"

"Not really... At first yeah, but now it's just kinda numb."

The skeleton ran his thumb lightly over the gash, but the human didn't even flinch. Looks like they either were a damn good actor, or really couldn't feel it. That probably wasn't good.

"...I've got some water with me. I think I at least should clean it a bit."

He nodded and let Frisk get their backpack in the corner, mildly surprised to see the flower shooting his head out, the moment they had opened it. They mumbled a couple of things to each other, before the kid got a bottle of pretty clear water. Sans helped them by slowly pouring some on their injury, while they used their other hand, to carefully rub the dried blood and even a bit dirt off. When they deemed it clean enough, they stared at it for a while.

"Hmm... Too bad I don't have any bandages."

At that the monster gave them a small grin and a little white roll of fabric appeared in his palm.

"you're lucky i've still got some leftover."

They wondered if a skeleton could get hurt in a way that would need any bandages, while he was already applying the thin material around their hand, watching his quick and swift movements.

"there we go."

"You look like you've done this a lot."

His eyesockets closed briefly at that and he just shrugged, saying that since they didn't have any doctors in the Underground, it'd be wiser to know how to take care of oneself. Afterwards they just sat on the ground again, chatting a bit, even the plant had warmed up to him a little. A little. The flower would still have this obvious hint of suspicion on his face. After a while he had another coughing fit and the human asked him if he was okay.

"don' worry, it's this thing."

The skeleton tugged lightly on the chain attached to the metal collar, causing a few rattling noises.

"'s enhanced with magic, so i can't get it off without the key. i wouldn' really bother, if it wouldn' feel so nasty 'round the neck."

The kid cast him a slightly sympathetic look, but it quickly was replaced by something else. With their good hand they started fiddling with their coat, looking a bit awkward while doing so.

"I totally forgot...", they mumbled absentmindely as they were slowly managing to pull the thick, red scarf out from underneath their collar. For what felt like probably a good couple of minutes, the human kept fighting with the piece of fabric, until it finally came off completely. All three pairs of eyes widened at the sight, now that only their bare throat was beneath the collar, they could see that the metal ring was way too big for the kid. It was loosely hanging around their neck and they looked at it with a weird glint in their eyes. They slowly raised both of their hands and carefully squeezed their head through, their nose hurt afterwards but they had managed to get it fully off. Sans could barely even believe what had just happened.

*** * ***

After they had successfully removed the collar, they let it drop to the ground and looked just as stunned as everyone else in the shed.

"You've got to be kidding me.", was all the fower said in disbelief.

Frisk turned towards their backback and pretty much beamed at their friend.

"We don't have to stay here for the night, we can go and keep looking now! Mic, only the collars are enhanced with magic, but not the doors right?"

"u-uh, yeah. think so."

"So you can open them As! Like you did with the one at home!", they exclaimed cheerfully, more than ready to get out and keep exploring the Underground. It might be a bit scary, but it was exciting... and besides, they had a mission. The human wasn't going to let Toriel down any time soon. Asriel was a bit taken aback and had a hint of uncertainty in his small eyes.

"Well, um, yeah. I could try, but it'd probably only work if they're older locks."

Sans gaze went to the plant, a slightly amused grin on his face.

"you pick locks?"

The flower frowned lightly at that and said, that any monster in their right mind down there, would've at least tried it once in their life.

"good point."

The child didn't question their short exchange and decided to pull their companion out of the backpack, to hold him up in front of the metal lock. He extended a few thin vines out of his pot and started fiddling with the door, the human noticed the skeleton's raised brow at their little actions. It had only taken a couple of seconds, until they heard a tiny 'click', indicating that the door was unlocked now. They returned the flowerpot to it's previous place and took their things, wrapping the scarf back around their neck. Frisk halted outside of the cell to look at Sans through the metal bars, he just sat at the same spot, wearing a strange expression.

"...Do you wanna be free, too?"

He blinked at them and then just said "what?".

"I mean, you don't have to stay with your brother, right? You don't really look like you're enjoying your time in here."

A smile crept on his face.

"...aw, man. i appreciate that kid, but it ain't that simple."

"Why not?"

"...look. i could try to run away, sure, but where to? it's not just my bro, hell, i would take 'im with me if it actually came to that. it's just- it's complicated alright? this is the king's ground, and the lil spots that ain't his? full of hollows. there are rules down 'ere which we gotta follow, n' the big boss' lil puppets are everywhere, makin' sure nobody starts dancin' to a different tune, y'got that? 'sides, _if_ i'd actually manage to get away, then what? what would be next? it's not like i can just knock on some other monster's door n' ask if i could make myself at home for a while. there's no way i'd survive the night by myself. it's pointless, so why even bother."

"You could come with us."

His head shot back to the child and the flower behind them looked like he wanted to strongly object, but decided against it.

"If it's so dangerous outside, then more people would be better, plus I'm sure we can arrange something for you at home."

The skeleton just stared at them, motionless on the floor. After Frisk figured, that they wouldn't get any response, they added that they'd go look for the key of the collar and he could still make a decision afterwards. Asriel really looked like he wanted to protest. Telling the monster, they'd be back in a while, they made their way to the wooden door and stepped out into the cold of the late afternoon, after unlocking it. Sans just stayed quiet, still sitting on the cool ground.

*** * ***

"Frisk... are you sure we should help him? I don't trust him."

"Why not? He's only been nice to us so far, okay, maybe he likes to tease me a little, but that's just it."

"Hm."

Asriel had a troubled face, the child wanted to say something, but he already beat them to it, changing the subject.

"Where do you want to find the key, anyway?"

"Uh... In the house? It's theirs, right?"

They pointed at the big lodge next to the shed, the flower gave them a slightly skeptical look.

"That is, if the 'big guy' isn't carrying it around with him and _also_ isn't _inside_ the house.", the plant said in a flat voice.

"Well, um, yeah."

"...So you really want to break into their home?"

"Geez, yes. Okay. You've got a better idea?"

"Drop it and keep doing what we originally wanted to do?"

"As! You're so mean sometimes!"

"How am I mean??", he actually looked offended at that.

" _We_ will help him. He helped me, too."

"What, by capturing you and delivering you to his brother?"

They gave him a sharp look and wanted to shift their backback, but flinched when they used their bad hand. The child frowned and rubbed at it carefully, the numbness was slowly going away and being replaced by a dull throbbing ache.

"...Sorry", the flower said after a moment of silence.

"'s okay."

"Well, uh, if you really want to search the house, you should hurry, it's already afternoon... And apparently he's part of the Royal Guard, so maybe we're lucky and he's still on duty."

"You should know it, _little prince_."

The child's mood lightened a bit, while the plant pouted and told them to not call him that. They just giggled in return, ever since the revelation at the Ruins, Frisk enjoyed teasing their friend with things like 'prince', 'majesty' and 'your highness'. That Toriel turned out to be the Queen didn't surprise the human that much, since she already had given off this royal kind of feeling from the start.

The icy wind was picking up and they opted for pushing their hands into their coat pockets, before looking around and making their way towards the wooden building. Breaking into someone's home was bad, but this world wasn't exactly good either. They went up to the door and quietly tried their luck. Locked, of course. At least it didn't seem like Papyrus was inside then.

_If he's hopefully not a guy, who would lock himself up at home..._

Without making much noise, they shuffled around the cabin, searching for any kind of way in. Checking the windows was the best option, that much they knew from the times Frisk had snuck outside at night with the other kids. Not long after, they reached a slightly cracked window at the far side of the house. _Jackpot._  
With all their might, they tried to push it up, but it wouldn't budge, they also couldn't use both their hands for it.

"I think it's frozen n' stuck.", they huffed.

"Wait, let me help.", Asriel mumbled.

Using his vines, the window was fully open in no time and he gave the child a little smug grin.

"That's so unfair, I only had one hand."

"Sure."

Frisk nudged their companion at that and they both chuckled lighty, careful as not to be too loud and attract any unwanted eavesdroppers. They slowly climbed inside, leaving the window open wide, if they needed to make a quick escape. When they turned around, they were greeted by a neat looking kitchen, most of the furniture in there way to big for the human child, especially the sink left them staring with a raised eyebrow. It was just ridiculously tall. Papyrus was pretty big too, but they honestly wondered if he could even reach that.

With the help of the flower, they started searching through many different cabinets and drawers at once, they winced a bit at how loud they were.

_I guess it's okay though, it's not like anyone's home._

Right behind them they suddenly heard a very low growl, it sent shivers down their spine and both instantly panicked. Holding their breath, Frisk very slowly turned around and came face to face with a big feline creature, resembling a white saber tooth tiger. The child was utterly terrified, but couldn't help the little spark of fascination fluttering in their chest. It was obvious, that the growl had come from it, but now it just stood there sniffing at them. Fear rose inside them at how close it was, they were sure it must have been at least a head taller than them, if not even more. It mustered them with big, icy blue eyes and it's furr looked really soft. The human slowly raised their good hand and the flower next to them lost all the color in his small face.

"H-Hey there big kitty..."

The cat-like creature stared at their raised hand and to the child's surprise and the flower's shock, it nuzzled it's nose against their palm. Frisk couldn't help the childish glee growing in them at that, but gave a surprised squeak, as the furred creature suddenly pretty much glomped them, laying on the ground while doing so. It almost burried them with it's head, purring lowly, they just giggled while the plant gaped at the creature, completely confused.

"D'aww you're just a big ol' softy arentchu~" 

They put their arms around its big head as best they could and nuzzled it back.

"What... even is going on ..?", Asriel mumbled.

"Heheh It likes me!"

"Looks like it...."

The child cheerfully proceeded to pet the feline, but stopped once they noticed a spikey collar around it's neck, with a tag that read 'DOOMFANGER' and snorted. The flower rolled his eyes at their little antics with the tiger, tapping on the human's shoulder with a vine, to remind them of what they were doing again.

"Ahhh... you don't know by any chance where the keys in this house are, do you?", they sighed and were startled as the big cat rose and went out of the kitchen. The two friends exchanged a confused look and they stood up, to see where it had gone. Before Frisk had even made one step, the white furred beast returned with a bundle of keys dangling from it's mouth. The child beamed and praised the feline, while the plant sputtered something unintelligible.

Thanking it, they nuzzled one last time, enjoying the feeling of the soft warm furr, that reminded them of Toriel, before climbing through the window again and giving a short wave, once their feet hit the snowy ground. It gave a soft growl, which they took as a goodbye.

Since the wooden door was unlocked, it barely gave any sound as they pushed it open. Stepping inside, they went around the corner and spotted Sans sitting on the bed, his head lying on his hand, while his arm was propped up against a knee. He stared with a bored look at the other end of the room, where Frisk was sitting not too long ago and didn't seem to notice their presence. They smiled widely and shook the keys in their hand, catching his attention. The skeleton was startled and his eyesockets widened, staring at them as if they were some kind of phatamorgana.

With his help, they found the right key and opened the collar, the monster thanking them hesitantly as he removed it and rubbed at the bones of his neck.

"The offer is still up you know."

"...i'd probably have to get some of my stuff first."

"That's okay. There's only a big nice kitty in the lodge, so it's no Problem. Oh yeah, it gave me the keys!"

"heh yeah. that's papyrus'. can you believe 's supposed to _guard_ the house?"

"Oh boy, what a great choice of a watchdog.", commeneted the flower with a heavy layer of sarcasm coating his words.

"totally. but at least my bones're safe i guess."

He winked and the child had to stiffle a giggle at the thought of a skeleton keeping a dog as a pet. For some reason Sans looked at his hand, as he curled and uncurled his fingers, a grin stretching on his face.

"well come on then, better not waste any time."

He extended his arm towards them and they slowly took his hand, a bit confused at his gesture. A strange feeling washed over them and the next moment they were back inside the lodge, glancing around disoriented. They stumbled after the skeleton into a room, it was dusty and looked like it had been neglected for ages. He told them that they could hang out with Doomfanger or have a look into the fridge in the meantime. They watched him go over to a desk and open a drawer, shuffling some of its content and then pulling something relativey flat out and staring at it for a while. They tried peeking past him and only made out an old picture frame, but the glass was reflecting some of the light coming through the window. He flipped it and opened the back, pulling two pictures out before they disappeared into thin air, probably into his Inventory. The skeleton dropped the empty frame back into the drawer and opened the next one. Frisk thought it'd be better to leave him his privacy and went downstairs as they were told.

They took some food from the refrigerator and cabinets, sure they still had the things Toriel had prepared for them, but now they were three and who knew how long it'd take them to find this mystery person the flower had talked about. When they thought they had enough, they turned and noticed Sans leaning against the door frame.

"done?"

"Uh, yeah I think."

"good."

He put the keys on the kitchen counter and they saw a small note stuck to them, but before they could read it, the skeleton already took their hand again and they were standing at the edge of the forest. The child turned towards their new found friend with sparkling eyes.

"That's really cool."

"what?"

"Your teleporting thing! It's awesome! Can other monsters do that too?"

Sans looked pretty surprised and started chuckling.

"well. thanks. i guess.... n' 'bout the last one: not sure but i think i'm the only one i know at least."

They were about to head into the woods, when suddenly the skeleton stopped in his tracks.

"ah- hang on a sec, i forgot somethin'. you can go ahead, jus' walk straight till ya get to the crooked fir, you'll know when y'see it. don' worry, nobody should see ya, i'll catch up later."

"Uh, okay."

And the next moment he was gone. Frisk hesitated before turning towards what they presumed he meant by 'straight', all the while their little companion once again voiced his distrust towards the monster.

It finally started snowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to a friend i found [this thing](http://crashboombanger.tumblr.com/post/141568014192)


	13. Palaver

Snowflake after snowflake, they were endlessly falling from above. How did that even work? Rain, hail and snowflakes came from clowds, were there clouds in the Underground? Maybe it had something to do with the cave's layout and other things, such as pressure and temperature - or it was simply magic.

"Who knows, there's a lot of things one can do with magic. Creating artificial weather shouldn't seem that far from possible, don't you think?"

"What now, did you suddenly learn how to read minds?"

They shifted their backpack with their good hand again. They knew it wasn't very heavy, most of their luggage was stored in their inventory, but they couldn't help but feel like it was currently packed with stones instead of clothes and a flower pot. Frisk's shoulders were getting sour, not even starting on their legs. They've been out in the cold for hours, at best they're just tired, at worst they went and had gotten themself sick. The latter didn't seem too far from the case.

"You start mumbling when you're nervous. Reading minds would be pretty handy, though."

The child shuffled their feet in the snow, they had grown bored of drawing loopy shapes with the heel of their boot quite a while ago. 

"Where did that optimism go? You're all fidgety."

At that they immediately straightened their back and stuffed both hands in their pockets. They could feel their left arm growing stiffer with each passing minute, probably not a good sign. Was the scratch really that bad? Sure, it had bled a lot, but still. Maybe they should get it checked - though if they remember correctly, they think Sans had mentioned that there were no doctors underground - and well, when they think about it, even if there were any, they doubt those kind of doctors would have been of any help.

_I need to be more careful. I'm pretty much left to my own devices when it comes to getting hurt down here._

"I don't know... I just can't help thinking- don't you think he's taking a bit long? What if something happened, what if he got caught?"

"That's what you're worried about?"

The silver flower heaved a tired sigh, his expression solemn.

"Frisk, I've been saying this from the start, and you're probably getting sick of hearing me say this, but- look, I don't trust him."

"Asriel-"

"I really don't think we should trust him, okay? We shouldn't trust _anyone_ here. And- it's just- he's kinda weird, okay?"

The child looked affronted at the last part and turned their head as best they could towards the plant.

"Asriel, just because you don't like him, doesn't mean we should ditch him. He's helping and like I said earlier, it's better to have more people around."

"Sure, alright, but we _barely_ even know him. Didn't he say at the start that it's his job to capture you? You can't tell me you haven't thought about the possibility of him just _pretending_ to be nice, to get back at us later."

Frisk seemed to falter a bit at that, they hadn't actually. Looking back, Asriel technically was right. What _did_ they know about him? He lived outside the Ruins, he was some sort of sentry, his brother seemed to be part of the Royal Guard, which served the King. If this were still a game, he would be part of the enemy. If it weren't for their dumb luck, they probably would still be stuck in a cell, it didn't exactly look like he was eager to free them.

"Frisk... I know by now that you really want to believe in the best in people, but sometimes you just have to look at things objectively..."

"oh, hey, look at that. you made it."

*** * ***

A couple of feet away the skeleton was lazily trudging towards the two, his jacket seemingly untouched by the constant snowfall. They hadn't even heard him coming, he must have jumped.

_That's going to be a bit of a problem..._

The child still had a mixed look on their face, the flower leaned a bit closer to their ear, making sure the slowly approaching monster hopefully couldn't hear him.

" _Look, all I'm asking is that you'll be careful, alright? I don't need you to get in any more danger. We can play along for now, just if anything even seems a little fishy - we bail, okay?_ "

Frisk gave him a long look before finally facing Sans, who was wearing a loopy grin and gazing between them with questioning eyesockets.

"what's with this private party, yer gonna let me in, too?"

"No."

"didn' know plants could be so prissy."

The human covered the flower's face with their hand and gently pushed him back, before he could say anything in response. They knew from past interactions with some Pricks that once you poked at him, he would start straight out stabbing instead. Little flower escapades was what they liked to call them. Well, perhaps right now really wouldn't be a good time to bite back.

"He's having a bad day.", they offered an apologetic smile.

"hm. hope ya didn' have any trouble on yer way here."

"It wasn't really that hard to find..."

It hadn't even been that far from the lodge, ten minutes at best. The 'crooked fir' was really just that - a small, kind of disfigured, lone tree in the middle of an opening. Surrounded by all those tall pines, it seemed quite out of place, someone had most likely planted it there. He hadn't told the child, but he didn't really know much about that section of the Underground, at least not more than what they had read in Toriel's books. They had a basic layout and he knew where certain 'peaks' for the entrance were, but getting there was going to be the hard part. So much has changed since he began hiding in the Ruins, if they already have to put up with him, then they might as well make the best out of it.

"Hey, what took you so long? We were about to turn into popsicles out here."

Sans gave the flower a brief glance before shrugging and stating that he just forgot to lock up Doomfanger, but the saber tooth had other plans. He apparently didn't need to add any more things to the list of angering his brother. Asriel didn't believe him, Frisk on the other hand didn't question him at all and instead started excitedly talking about the feline creature. A true child at heart - they would have to work on that. He cleared his nonexistent throat.

"I hate to interrupt your little chit-chat, but we do have things to do."

"ah yeah, ya said ya were searchin' somethin', right?"

"And the sooner we find it, the better - so let's get moving already."

"alright, but what exactly are we lookin' for?"

"That's... confidential."

"confi- now look here, buddy. i dunno if ya really get this, but if you wan' me to help ya, then ya gotta give me some kinda base. how else am i s'posed to know what to look for."

"It's- It's, uh, something private. Between me and Asriel, sorry.", Frisk interjected, throwing a quick look over their shoulder, at their little friend. They would really need to talk later again.

"what the hell. then what do you even need me for?"

*** * ***

A shift. A mere second, yet enough to be visible. Was this it?

A hand flew over various shards of light, waterfalls of symbols appearing over them. Low static came from the far left - or was it right behind? It didn't make much of a difference, the humming grew rapidly louder and changed in tune. It formed a familiar melody.

Sickly sweet, the smell of flowers was creeping closer. Overwhelming and unpleasant. Shards flew apart, revealing piercing red eyes and a sharp smile. So it was the front.

_Found something interesting?_

Invasive as ever, that little parasite.

[We had an agreement.]

The face changed, eyes wide, an imitation of innocence - it was almost revolting.

_Oh, had we now? My bad, I must have forgotten._

As if.

[What did you do.]

They turned, their features displaying fake hurt, while fingers prodded at empty shapes.

_My, so accusing._

[You're wasting my time.]

_Wasting your time? Don't make me laugh._

[What do you want.]

_Here I am, merely visiting an old friend, and this is my reward. You wound me._

This pest.

[I don't need you loitering around my space. Spit it out already.]

_Heee... someone's in a bad mood today._

A swift motion, but they were already gone, instead the static was replaced by a nerve grating giggle. All was drowning in their stench by now - just wonderful.

_Hm.... I was just wondering if you were willing to pick up an old little game of ours. I must admit, I've been growing fairly bored lately._

They didn't-

A high-pitched noise came from one of the discarded shards. Symbols were flashing all over them until they formed into one single message, drowning everything in red light. The sound molded into a low, repeating rumble - almost like a beat. This little-

_Trust me -_

_**This is going to be fun.**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who crawled out of the grave, dragging this thing along  
> yeah i'm picking up the story again, mainly because i'm currently sick and found some notifications on this when i swept through one of my e-mails (let's be real, i completely forgot about this and would have left it for dead if it weren't for that)  
> as i said nearly a year ago, i edited and rewrote the previous chapters to match a more serious plotline, this thing was a big joke among friends, but i removed anything linking to that in the work and will now concentrate on the story itself  
> minor parody elements and little throw-ins will still remain (or otherwise i would have to write a completely new story)  
> I won't be able to update as frequently as last year, but i'll see what i can do

**Author's Note:**

> Born from Carrie_oke's 'Gametop'-idea ("The Light in the Grim Darkness" is the actual title of the work), which was 'discussed' in another stupid late night chat with local friends, mashed up with a lot of DAHMJOR and other elements...  
> (originally a joke and parody, changed and edited a year later into something more serious - still lowkey parody)  
> considering I mostly wrote this in the middle of the night or while being sick, plus the fact that english is not my first language, feel free to tell me if there's anything I could've done better. I dont have a beta-reader either, so yeah.  
> And don't be afraid to ask questions :)


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